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Air Canada announces three new US routes despite decline in cross-border travel

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Air Canada announces three new US routes despite decline in cross-border travel
Research
Webp 11
Michael Rousseau, President and Chief Executive Officer | Air Canada

Air Canada has announced plans to launch three new seasonal routes between Canada and the United States in summer 2026, even as travel between the two countries has declined.

The airline will resume service from Toronto Pearson Airport (YYZ) to San Antonio International Airport (SAT), a route it last operated in 2020. In addition, Air Canada will introduce flights from Montreal-Trudeau International Airport (YUL) to Cleveland Hopkins International Airport (CLE) and John Glenn Columbus International Airport (CMH) in Ohio. The YYZ-SAT route will operate three times a week on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays using an Airbus A220-300 aircraft. Both the YUL-CLE and YUL-CMH routes will be daily flights on Embraer E175 jets. All three services are scheduled to run seasonally from May 1 through October 2026.

This expansion comes at a time when transborder air travel is facing challenges. According to data from the U.S. International Trade Administration, Canadian arrivals in the United States by air dropped by 11% in the first half of this year compared to the same period in 2024, with only 4.7 million Canadians traveling south by air during that timeframe. Cirium data also indicates that Air Canada flew 7% fewer transborder seats from May through August this summer compared to last year.

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Despite these declines, Air Canada says it plans to increase its capacity between Canada and the U.S. by about 15% next summer.

The airline may be aiming its new routes more at American travelers connecting onward rather than Canadians flying directly to the U.S. Air Canada's hubs—Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver—are frequently used for so-called "sixth-freedom" traffic: passengers originating in one country, transferring in another (Canada), then continuing on to a third destination such as Europe or Asia.

Alexandre Lefèvre, Air Canada's vice president of planning and scheduling, said earlier this year that the carrier intends to add up to 15 new U.S. airports to expand connectivity over its hubs, focusing on midsize cities without dominant hub airlines rather than larger markets. "Our big focus, and our big success over the past few years, have been in those unaligned markets where we've got a right to win," he said.

The announcement follows other recent long-haul expansion plans for Air Canada in summer 2026. The airline is set to begin flights from Toronto to Palma de Mallorca in Spain and Catania in Italy while resuming previously suspended routes from Toronto to Budapest and Shanghai.

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