2 Canadian airlines cutting short some service to several U.S. destinations from Alberta

A local travel agent says people are cancelling their trips to the U.S. and opting for other destinations.

A pair of Canadian airlines are soon ending several planned flights from Alberta to the United States.

According to the commercial aviation site Aeroroutes, Flair Airlines will end four service routes to Las Vegas and Phoenix from Edmonton and Calgary early.

WestJet cancelled two planned U.S.-bound flights from Alberta early on Tuesday, including summertime service from Edmonton to Orlando, Fla.

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A Flair Edmonton-to-Las-Vegas flight that had been scheduled to end May 26 will now end April 7, while Edmonton-to-Phoenix service that had been slated to end April 22 will instead finish on April 8.

Two Calgary-to-Las-Vegas flights will end April 7 and April 8 instead of the planned May 26 and April 22, respectively.

The Calgary-based WestJet also aborted a planned route from Calgary to New York’s LaGuardia Airport.

• Decline of Canadians heading to the U.S. ‘catastrophic’ for tour operators

Representatives from both Flair and WestJet said Wednesday consumer demand dictates frequency of flights to certain markets.

“We’ve seen a shift in bookings and, as is common in the industry, we’re adjusting our schedule to fly our guests where they want to go,” Josh Yeats, a WestJet media and public relations strategist, told CTV News Edmonton.

A drop in the number of Canadians looking to travel to the U.S. doesn’t surprise Edmonton-based travel agent Hidar Elmais, who said Wednesday that ongoing threats of tariffs and to sovereignty by U.S. President Donald Trump has soured Canucks on visiting their neighbours to the south.

“(We’re) definitely seeing a lot of Canadians with a lot of patriotism right now who want to either travel within Canada or travel outside of Canada, but they definitely don’t want to support the U.S. right now,” said Elmais, adding his family’s Travel Gurus business that operates in Alberta’s two biggest cities has seen at least 100 cancellations of trips to the States.

“I can only imagine how (many cancellations) bigger offices are getting or the ones that are operating bigger accounts as well. This is just cancellations. If we actually determine how many people are being lost right now, because they’re saying, ‘Instead of going to that Miami conference in 2025 or 2026 right now, (let’s rebook.)

“They’re booking for Mexico – generally it can handle that many people – but we’re talking about 500 people per company ... so that’s going to turn into thousands and thousands of people just from our travel agency that are choosing not to travel to the U.S. this year or next year because of the vibe, really, that they’re getting from the U.S. president.”

With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Nav Sangha