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The Street
The Street
Veronika Bondarenko

Airline bets big on US-Canada travel with new flights

While a few Americans will actually follow through with the "I'm moving to Canada" reaction popular with some disaffected voters immediately after Donald Trump's re-election, American travel to the country has been increasing.

Travel platform Kayak recently identified Montreal among the North American destinations seeing the most tourism demand this year while numbers from the Canadian government show that the 2.1 million U.S. residents who came to Canada for tourism in May 2024 is a 13% jump from the same month in 2023.

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Related: There is a new flight to one of the most remote regions in the world

An Air Canada plane is shown, flying above clouds.

Shutterstock

'Easy connections at major hubs with our international network'

In response to increased demand, Canada's flagship carrier Air Canada  (ACDVF)  just announced it is launching a number of new flights to Canada from smaller U.S. cities. While the airline been running routes from different parts of Canada to major hubs such as New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles, the updated 2025 flying schedule includes a flight to Montreal from Cincinnati. New routes also include a flight between Vancouver and Nashville and Toronto and Florida's Jacksonville.

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The goal is both to serve those specific cities and create a wider transfers network for both those flying to Canada from smaller U.S. cities and Canadians flying to different parts of the world (in particular the Caribbean and South America) through the U.S.

The new flights, which are slated to launch in May 2025, will increase Air Canada's weekly service between the two countries by 160,000 seats and offer more routes in which travelers can go through U.S. customs pre-clearance at Canadian airports.

"For customers, Air Canada's trans-border flights are timed to allow for easy connections at major hubs with our international network and travelers returning to the U.S. can save time on arrival with the convenience of U.S. customs pre-clearance during their connection in Canada," Executive Vice President of Network Planning Mark Galardo said in a press statement.

Related: Airline plays on Trump election with 'one-way flight to Canada' offer

New routes include Boston, Tampa and Indianapolis flights from Toronto

Additional changes announced by Air Canada include increasing the frequency of flights between Toronto and Indianapolis, Boston, Tampa and Dallas-Fort Worth to daily as well as adding a number of new routes to international destinations. 

Similarly to the focus of U.S.-based airlines like United  (UAL) , Air Canada is also tapping into increased traveler interest in southern Europe with new flights to Italy's Naples and Portugal's Porto as well as a new flight from Toronto to Trinidad and Tobago and increased frequency between Montreal and the Moroccan city of Casablanca. In May 2024, United also announced a flashy new route between Newark Liberty and Marrakesh.

With most of the new flights leaving from the East Coast and Canada's two largest cities, the 2025 network schedule is light on new routes from West Coast cities like Vancouver and Calgary. The upcoming Vancouver-Nashville flight is a seasonal one that will run from May until late October and be reconsidered for either sunsetting or renewal in 2026 based on traveler interest.

"By leveraging our hubs in Toronto and Montreal we will offer more than 100,000 weekly seats to 30 destinations across Europe and North Africa at the peak of next summer," Galardo said further.

Related: Veteran fund manager picks favorite stocks for 2024

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