Air Canada cutting or delaying eight U.S. routes amid high jet fuel cost and lower demand

Air Canada is cutting back or delaying eight U.S.-bound routes as the cost of jet fuel remains high and demand to travel south of the 49th parallel continues to fall. Photo by Darryl Brooks/Stock photo

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Air Canada is cutting back or delaying eight U.S.-bound routes as the cost of jet fuel remains high and demand to travel south of the 49th parallel continues to fall.

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The airline has adjusted the start dates for seasonal flights from Ottawa–Fort Lauderdale, Quebec City–Orlando and Montreal–Palm Beach, according to an email to National Post from Air Canada media relations. Instead, the airline plans to resume flying to those Florida destinations “closer to peak winter travel periods… better matching projected demand.”

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Air Canada had previously announced cutbacks to flights into New York City’s JFK airport, as previously reported by National Post. Now, the airline said it plans to return there in the future, but “those services will not resume this winter.”

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Meanwhile, the airline said it is “continuing to grow (its) New York presence year-over-year” with new services from Toronto’s downtown Billy Bishop Airport, with up to five daily flights to LaGuardia this winter. That’s in addition to flights from Toronto’s Pearson Airport to LaGuardia Airport in New York and Newark Airport in New Jersey.

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Flights to the American Midwest will be most affected by cuts. Air Canada said the Montreal–Detroit, Montreal–Minneapolis and Toronto–Indianapolis routes did not operate last winter, and the airline has “made a commercial decision not to operate them this winter based on projected demand.”

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Statistics Canada reported a 25 per cent year-over-year drop in Canadians returning by air from the United States at the end of 2025. The number continued to decline in May 2026, with another 5.5 per cent decline compared to May 2025.

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Speaking to declining demand, Air Canada said it “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.”

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In late April, Air Transat announced cutbacks, saying it was going to suspend six per cent of flights. WestJet also announced plans to adjust flight capacity, cutting by about one per cent in April, three per cent in May and nearly six per cent in June, by consolidating flights on some routes and shortening the travel period for seasonal service to several destinations.

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