Air Canada is eliminating five more routes to U.S. destinations for summer 2027, extending a string of cancellations tied to weakening demand for cross-border travel.
The airline confirmed it will cancel service between Montreal and Seattle, Vancouver and Nashville, Vancouver and Raleigh-Durham, Toronto’s Billy Bishop Airport and Boston, and Toronto Pearson and Charleston, South Carolina. The Toronto-Charleston route was the only direct flight Air Canada offered to South Carolina, meaning the airline is exiting that state’s market entirely.
An Air Canada spokesperson, Sean Davidson, said the airline “regularly reviews its schedule to ensure capacity is aligned with customer demand and travel patterns,” adding that the company made “a commercial decision to adjust some routes next summer.” He said Air Canada will continue serving Nashville and Raleigh-Durham from other Canadian airports, including Toronto.
Demand Drop Driving Cuts
Canadian travel to the United States has fallen sharply compared with 2024 levels, which sources link to repeated rhetoric from U.S. President Donald Trump, including comments about annexation, along with rounds of tariffs imposed during his trade dispute with Canada. According to Statistics Canada data cited by Yahoo Finance, Canadian trips to the U.S. in September 2026 were down 29% compared with September 2024, with car border crossings down 31% and flights down 19%.
A report from the University of Toronto’s School of Cities found that trips by Canadians to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, fell more than 65% between 2024/25 and 2025/26, the steepest decline recorded for any U.S. city in the study.
An analysis from aviation website Simple Flying noted that departures from Toronto to Charleston dropped from 200 in 2024 to 92, with seats flown falling from 15,200 to 6,992, following the tariffs and political rhetoric. Simple Flying also noted that the Vancouver routes to Nashville and Raleigh-Durham were transcontinental offerings with higher operating costs, making them more vulnerable to cuts, while fares and yields on those routes were reportedly weak. Air Canada had already reduced the Vancouver-Nashville route by 27% in 2026 before cutting it entirely.
Part of a Broader Pattern
The Toronto-Charleston flight, first launched in 2001 as the first direct international service to Charleston from outside the U.S., had been relaunched for summer 2024 after a pandemic-era suspension. In May, Air Canada had already suspended some seasonal flights, including Toronto-Charleston, earlier than usual due to rising jet fuel prices, before announcing this week that the route would be cancelled indefinitely.
Air Canada had also previously announced cancellations of winter service between Montreal and Detroit, Montreal and Minneapolis, and Toronto and Indianapolis, set to end by late October. Despite the cuts, the airline said it would add new routes for summer 2027 between Toronto and Louisville, Montreal and Indianapolis, and Edmonton and Newark.
Other Canadian carriers have made similar moves. WestJet announced in spring that it was cutting 10 summer routes to the U.S. citing declining demand, while Air Transat said in April it would reduce its schedule, citing higher fuel prices linked to the Iran war.
Broader Travel Trends
Despite the overall decline, total Canadian trips to the U.S. saw some movement in September, with 1.9 million return trips recorded, a 6.8% year-over-year increase, and air travel trips rising 11.6% compared with the same month last year, though still 18.7% below 2024 levels, according to Statistics Canada figures cited by Global News.
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