Canada souring on travel to the U.S., data shows

New flight data shows a massive drop in demand for flights between Canada and the U.S. CTV’s Kimberley Fowler reports.

For the Lefeure family, flying to the U.S. for a vacation was never a big deal.

They were planning to go to the World Figure Skating Championships in Boston this year, but after the election of U.S. President Donald Trump and the threats to Canadian sovereignty, that trip is off.

“I did not like when the political climate went upside down, so we decided not to go,” Gloria Lefeure said. “For fear of maybe retaliation because we are Canadians.”

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Her husband Keith agrees. He feels as long as Canada is in the crosshairs, going to the U.S. is not in the cards.

“Mr. Trump has imposed tariffs on a country that he signed agreements with, a trade agreement that was negotiated in good faith,” Lefeure said. “He has now rescinded so that leaves a bitter taste in my mouth.”

They are not alone. Statistics from aviation data firm “Official Airline Guide” show airline bookings between Canada and the United States have plummeted by more than 70 per cent for the upcoming summer months compared to last year.

According to John Gradek, of McGill University Aviation, he has not seen air travel crater like this since the COVID pandemic.

“Canadians are walking away from U.S. travel and going domestically or over seas,” Gradek said. “Our friends at WestJet have a new flight from Halifax to Barcelona, Montreal to Edinburgh. They are turning on a dime to redeploy assets that would, I think, normally be deployed in the U.S. and deploying overseas.”

In March 2024, more than 1.2 million tickets were sold for air travel for April of that year. This March, fewer than 300,000 tickets have been sold for April 2025. That’s a decline of almost 76 per cent according to the Official Airline Guide.

The report goes on to say, airlines have already cut more than 320,000 one-way seats on transborder flights through October, that represents a 3.5 per cent reduction in capacity during the peak summer months.