Air Canada is planning three new U.S. routes subsequent summer time regardless of decrease transborder journey numbers.
The Star Alliance service will return to San Antonio Worldwide Airport (SAT) from its hub at Toronto Pearson Airport (YYZ), and add new routes to each Cleveland Hopkins Worldwide Airport (CLE) and Columbus’ John Glenn Worldwide Airport (CMH) in Ohio from Montreal-Trudeau Worldwide Airport (YUL). All three routes will function seasonally from Could 1, 2026, by way of that October.
Under are particulars of Air Canada’s new routes:
- YYZ-SAT: 3 times every week on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays on an Airbus A220-300.
- YUL-CLE: Day by day on an Embraer E175.
- YUL-CMH: Day by day on an E175.
Air Canada final flew YYZ-SAT in 2020, schedules from aviation analytics agency Cirium present. It at present serves each CLE and CMH from YYZ.
The airline plans to develop transborder capability between the U.S. and Canada by about 15% yr over yr in summer time 2026, Air Canada stated.
Air Canada flew 7% fewer transborder seats from Could by way of August this summer time in comparison with 2024, Cirium schedules present.
The deliberate development comes at an unsure time for U.S.-Canada air journey. From January by way of June, the variety of Canadians arriving within the U.S. by air was down 11% to 4.7 million in comparison with the identical interval in 2024, the newest knowledge from the U.S. Worldwide Commerce Administration exhibits.
And by all measures, Canadians are usually not staying residence however touring elsewhere, just like the Caribbean and Mexico, as a substitute of the U.S., amid animosity towards the Trump administration.
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Air Canada, nevertheless, might not be focusing on Canadians with its new U.S. routes. The airline does an enormous enterprise flying People to Europe and Asia by way of its hubs at YYZ, YUL and Vancouver Worldwide Airport (YVR). These are generally known as “sixth-freedom” routes as a result of vacationers originate in a single nation, transit in a second and arrive in a 3rd.
Alexandre Lefèvre, Air Canada’s vice chairman of planning and scheduling, stated in February that the airline deliberate so as to add as many as 15 new U.S. airports to develop connectivity over its hubs. And people new locations, he added, wouldn’t essentially be among the many largest U.S. markets.
“Our large focus, and our large success over the previous few years, have been in these unaligned markets the place we have got a proper to win,” he stated.
CLE, CMH and SAT are all markets that match this description — midsize U.S. cities with no single dominant hub airline.
The brand new transborder routes complement Air Canada’s long-haul growth in 2026. In June, the airline will launch new flights to Palma de Mallorca Airport (PMI) in Spain and Catania Airport (CTA) in Italy, and resume flights to Budapest Ferenc Liszt Worldwide Airport (BUD) and Shanghai Pudong Worldwide Airport (PVG) from YYZ that it has not flown since at the very least 2020.
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