Three major airlines are dropping plans to increase flights between Canada and the US, a clear indicator the slowdown in cross-border traffic shows no signs of abating.
Canadian airline WestJet has canceled the launch of a new non-stop flight between Austin and Vancouver, citing a “downward shift in demand” for travel between Canada and the United States.
The seasonal YVR-AUS route was slated to start 11MAY, 2025 and WestJet had planned to operate three weekly flights, Texas television station KXAN reports.
“Due to a downward shift in demand for U.S. travel, WestJet has made the difficult decision to suspend scheduled direct service between Vancouver, British Columbia, and Austin, Texas,” a WestJet spokesperson told KXAN.
WestJet will “review opportunities” to serve the Vancouver-Austin route in the future, the spokesperson said as rival Air Canada currently offers the service.
Plans to expand Montreal to San Francisco service by Air Canada is also moving to the back burner, according to SimpleFlying.
Quoting filings from Cirium’s Diio Mi airline planning tool, the website said Air Canada will not increase to double-dailies between the two cities. Instead, the airline will return to the schedule it operated during the past winter season with a single daily flight between YUL and SFO.
Speaking on a zoom chat with California tourism reps last week, Visit California president and CEO Caroline Beteta said air arrivals to the Golden State from Canada were down 15.5% in March, compared to March of 2023.
Other airlines also have cut back on Canada-US flights as the tariff dispute lingers between the two countries. As previously reported by OpenJaw, JetBlue recently said it was withdrawing its plans to add flights between BOS and YHZ.
