“The air transport industry on both sides of the border has found a considerable drop in demand, mainly from Canadian travelers,” said Ryan Ewing, founder of the Airlinegeeks.com blog during a video interview with CTVNews on Friday.
This text is a translation of an article by CTV News.
He said he believed that the decrease in demand is due to the fact that Canadians are put off by the rhetoric of the American president Donald Trump, who pushes for example the idea of making Canada the 51st state, as well as by the current tariff battle.
The OAG aeronautical analysis firm reports another “disturbing trend” for airlines with the collapse of future flight reservations between Canada and the United States.
OAG indicates that compared to last year, reservations fell by more than 70 % for each month until the end of September.
“This brutal fall suggests that travelers hesitate to make reservations, probably due to the persistent uncertainty surrounding the wider commercial dispute,” the OAG wrote in a blog ticket on March 26.
This is bad news for airlines, but there is a positive side for consumers. The OAG said that some airlines may offer “cheap” American plane tickets to stimulate demand.
Against the backdrop of commercial tensions, here are the airlines that modify their plans or their schedules.
WestJet
In an email sent to CTVNews on Friday, Westjet said that it had suspended these four summer destinations in the United States:
- From New York to Calgary
- Of orlando to Edmonton
- From Austin to Vancouver
- From Seattle to Kelowna
“Due to a drop in demand, Westjet has updated its summer schedule to help Canadians go where they wish,” said Westjet. “Our schedule is continuously adjusted according to demand.”
On the other hand, the Calgary -based airline reported that it had found an increase in demand for domestic travel, especially between eastern and western Canada.
In response to this request, Westjet recently announced three new interior links.
In addition, she added a service between Halifax and Amsterdam, as well as between Halifax and Barcelona.
See also: Trade war: How does the American tourism industry adapt?
Air Canada
When asked if she changed her routes or thefts, Air Canada responded by email to CTVNews on Friday that she “adjusted her capacity” to the United States sun destinations, using smaller planes and reducing her routes in response to the evolution of market demand.
“We continue to monitor the request and we will make adjustments accordingly,” wrote the country’s largest air carrier. The company also indicated that it had changed its non-stop flights Vancouver-Washington Dulles to ensure correspondence in Toronto.
She said she had known “a certain slowdown in the cross -border market”, with reservations on the cross -border market overall down approximately 10 % from April to September.
The Montreal -based airline has reduced its capacity for routes to American leisure destinations such as Florida, Las Vegas and Arizona, Bloomberg reported on March 28.
Porter
The airline Porter Airlines, based in Toronto, also made changes to meet the increased travel demand inside Canada.
Porter told CTVNews that 80 % of the total network capacity during the summer cutting edge is now devoted to domestic flights. This figure is up compared to the 75 % previously planned.
“We are aware of the general feeling concerning trips to the United States,” said Mr. Porter in a statement sent by email to ctvnews.ca on Friday. “Our goal is to fly where our customers want to travel, and it’s a time when Canada is at the top of the list for many people.”
Although wearing has not canceled links with the United States, the airline said it increased the number of flights in the Canada regions to meet demand. It has not provided information on specific routes.
However, the airline said it added services to Phoenix, San Diego and New York-Laguardia, and introduces a service between Montreal and New York-Newark. It also increased the number of flights to Las Vegas and Fort Lauderdale.
See also: worried, a Montreal CEGEP decides to suspend all its trips to the United States
“Although traveling between Canada and the United States are currently unstable, we consider New York as a long-term key market to wear,” the company wrote. “There is always a global increase in trips to the United States on flights to wear … This is a dynamic environment and what will happen in the coming months will evolve.”
JetBlue
The New York airline Jetblue announced that it had suspended its summer seasonal service project between Halifax and Boston “because the reservations were not up to expectations”.
“This is one of the necessary measures that we take to manage our activities due to a lower travel request than expected this year and economic uncertainty,” JetBlue said in an email sent to CTVNews on Friday.
JetBlue added that it would continue to serve Vancouver, its only Canadian destination.
“All the customers concerned will be fully reimbursed,” wrote the company. “We will continue to assess the possibility of launching the service to Halifax next summer.”
