Air Canada Cuts Four Transborder Routes Amid U.S.–Canada Tensions

Air Canada is dropping four transborder routes for its 2025-26 winter schedule as the carrier shifts capacity away from the U.S. amid ongoing political tensions between Canada and its southern neighbor.

The airline will cut two routes from Montreal Trudeau International Airport (YUL) and one each from Toronto Pearson International Airport (YYZ) and Vancouver International Airport (YVR).

Flights between YUL and Detroit will end Sept. 30. Service between YUL and Minneapolis will cease Oct. 19. On the same day, Air Canada will end flying between YYZ and Indianapolis. Flights between YVR and Tampa, Florida, will also be dropped for the winter schedule.

An airline spokesperson told Aviation Week the routes “were suspended for commercial reasons.” He added that “we initially thought” the carrier would be able to operate the YVR-Tampa route year-round, but “we have rolled that back.”

The route cuts follow a downbeat assessment of transborder demand on the carrier’s first-quarter earnings call earlier this month. U.S. President Donald Trump’s plan to impose high tariffs on Canadian goods and repeated talk of annexing Canada to make it the U.S.’s “51st state” have lowered Canadians’ appetite for traveling to the U.S.

In addition to the route cuts, the spokesperson said Air Canada has already “trimmed transborder capacity … by down-gauging aircraft or operating fewer frequencies on routes.” He noted the carrier has redeployed transborder capacity to “domestic, sun and some international routes.”

Speaking earlier in May on Air Canada’s first-quarter earnings call, CEO Michael Rousseau said “the noise around tariffs and trade disputes definitely had an impact” on Canada–U.S. demand. He added that “some travelers avoided the U.S. simply because it was expensive, with the Canadian dollar trading at levels not seen since 2020.”

CCO Mark Galardo said the carrier’s network in the second and third quarters “is weighted heavily to international long-haul routes, which continue to show encouraging demand strength.” He noted the Montreal–Edinburgh route Air Canada is launching this summer will be flown with a Boeing 737 MAX “sourced from the capacity changes on our transborder network.”

Galardo added that the carrier saw “a big shift in travel demand away from U.S. leisure destinations to [Carribbean and Mexico] sun destinations” during the first quarter.

“We've reduced our exposure to U.S. leisure destinations where you might see a bit more sensitivity on the yield,” he said.

While the airline has judged that the dropped routes cannot be supported during the upcoming winter, the spokesperson said the carrier’s “current plan” is to restart service between YUL and both Detroit and Minneapolis in May 2026 depending on conditions. Air Canada also could restart YYZ-Indianapolis flights then, as well.

“We're experiencing booking declines in the low teens [percent year-over-year] on average over the next six months” for point-to-point transborder routes, Galardo said.

WestJet, Canada’s second-largest carrier, recently suspended nine transborder routes for parts of the summer, citing “declining demand for travel to the U.S.”