Second Canadian airline cuts US flights due to low demand

While President Donald Trump has dialed down his earlier rhetoric about Canada somewhat and is slated to meet with newly elected Mark Carney in the near future, his earlier statements calling the country “the 51st state” and then-Prime Minister Justin Trudeau “the governor” have angered Canadians to the point of canceling U.S. travel en masse.

Numbers from Customs and Border Protection (CBP) show that border crossings from Canada dropped by 12.5% in February and 18% in March. Canadian airlines have, in turn, been reconsidering their networks and cutting flights that were previously expected to see high demand.

“If we can derisk this a little bit and move and be a bit proactive and move capacity into other sectors [where] we see strength, I think that’s the right move right now in this context,” Mark Galardo, Air Canada  (ACDVF) ‘s executive vice president of revenue and network planning, told investors at an earnings call in March 2025.

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‘Downward shift in demand’: WestJet becomes latest to cut flights to US cities

That month, Canada’s flagship airline brought down the number of flights to Washington, Houston, and Miami from Vancouver International Airport (YVR) while a month later also scrapping earlier plans to run two daily flights between Montréal and San Francisco in the summer.

The second-largest airline in the country by total passengers served, Calgary-based WestJet has also recently axed routes from Vancouver to Austin, Kelowna to Seattle, Winnipeg to Los Angeles and Las Vegas, and Edmonton to Atlanta over the last month. A flight between Vancouver International Airport (YVR) and Austin-Bergstrom International Airport (AUS) that was supposed to start running on May 11 is now also being scrapped.

Related: Hotels have started giving Canadians anti-Trump discounts

As first reported by aviation website Simple Flying, the cuts were all made as part of a larger network shake-up influenced by lower traveler numbers between the two countries — many smaller cities expected to be popular among tourists before the administration change are now no longer bringing in traffic.

“Due to a downward shift in demand, WestJet has updated its summer schedule to help Canadians fly where they want to go,” WestJet said in a statement to Simple Flying. “Our schedule is continuously being adjusted based on demand.”

Trump repeatedly shoots down falling tourism numbers as ‘fake’

The move also comes as multiple countries, Canada among them, update advisories warning about increased caution when traveling to the U.S.

When asked about how the drop in tourist numbers would affect the economy, Trump has repeatedly shot down the possibility of a loss of American jobs (the U.S. Travel Association estimated that a 10% reduction in Canadian tourism would result in 140,000 lost jobs across several industries).

“There is a little nationalism there, I guess, perhaps,” Trump said during a press briefing at the Oval Office on April 23. “It is not a big deal.”

More on travel:

• United Airlines places big bet on new flights to trendy destination
• Government issues new travel advisory on popular beach destination
• Another country just issued a new visa requirement for visitors

At another press conference, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt also defended Trump’s policies by saying that “most recognize the U.S. is a great place to do business, a beautiful place to visit, and […] a much safer country than four years ago under the previous president.”

Related: Veteran fund manager issues dire S&P 500 warning for 2025

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