Air Canada says it’s cancelling or delaying several flights to some U.S. destinations this winter amid higher jet fuel prices and a drop in demand.
Canadians have been taking fewer trips to the U.S. since the start of the trade war, including a 24 per cent drop in return trips from the U.S. near the end of last year, according to Statistics Canada.
“Air Canada regularly reviews its schedule to ensure capacity is aligned with customer demand and seasonal travel patterns. As part of that process, we have made some adjustments to our winter schedule on select routes,” Air Canada said in a statement to Global News on Monday.
This comes after the airline announced last month that it was scaling back or suspending several routes for the summer travel season and after sending a warning to shareholders that higher jet fuel prices could negatively impact the company’s profits during the second half of the year.
Direct routes cancelled this winter include Montreal to Detroit, Montreal to Minneapolis and Toronto to Indianapolis, which maintains the same cancellations the airline announced for last winter.
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Air Canada says the decision to continue suspending those routes was “based on projected demand.”
Air Canada also says it’s “adjusting the start dates” for some routes to Florida, including Ottawa to Fort Lauderdale, Quebec City to Orlando and Montreal to Palm Beach. The airline says these schedule changes were being made to align “closer to peak travel periods.”
Near the end of 2025, a survey report showed only 10 per cent of Boomer Canadians said they planned on travelling to the U.S. in the winter, which was a 66 per cent decline from a year earlier.
Flights from Toronto and Montreal to New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) were also suspended as of June 1, with the airline in April saying, “jet fuel prices have doubled since the start of the Iran conflict and some lower profitability routes and flights are no longer economic.”
In the statement from Monday, Air Canada said those JFK suspensions will remain in place this winter.
“While we do plan to return to JFK in the future, those services will not resume this winter,” said Air Canada.
“In the meantime, we are continuing to grow our New York presence year over year with our new services from Toronto Billy Bishop Airport with up to five daily flights to LaGuardia this winter, which complement our services from Toronto Pearson to both LaGuardia and Newark.”
WestJet announced in the spring that it was also cancelling some summer routes, citing a notable decline in demand, and separately said it was considering adjusting flight capacity because of higher jet fuel prices.
Air Transat also announced in April it would slash flights from its schedules, citing higher jet fuel prices as a result of the Iran war.
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