Statistics show increase in U.S. travel from Ottawa airport

The Ottawa International Airport is seeing an uptick in travelers heading to the U.S. while other terminals across Canada are noticing a decline.

More travellers chose to fly to and from the United States out of the Ottawa airport compared to this time last year, breaking a wider trend of falling trips across the southern border.

Data provided by the Ottawa Airport Authority shows there were 406,786 transborder passengers departing and arriving from the U.S. between January and June of this year. That’s up from a total of 379,984 passenger trips during the first six months of last year, a seven per cent increase.

There were 741,449 passengers leaving and arriving from the U.S. in all of 2024.

So far this year, there were 2,389,041 trips through Ottawa, including 1,702,152 domestic passengers and 280,103 international travellers.

The increase stands in contrast with declining numbers of Canadians heading south since U.S. President Donald Trump took office in January.

Ottawa Airport Authority spokesperson Krista Kealey said it’s unclear why the nation’s capital has been bucking the trend as other Canadian airports report declines in transborder passenger volumes, but notes steadily strong numbers of travellers going to Florida and Washington D.C.

“Service to Florida – traditionally a strong market for the Ottawa-Gatineau region – has been scaled back, though it continues to perform well, possibly due to property owners continuing to travel. The sustained strength of the Washington routes may reflect ongoing trade and tariff-related activity,” Kealey said in a statement to CTV News Ottawa.

Kealey says there appears to be a softening of leisure travel, pointing to Porter Airlines’ decision to pause its service to Las Vegas for the summer. WestJet will also be halting its non-stop flights to Fort Myers, Florida this winter.

“As airlines begin loading their winter schedules, we’re seeing some reductions in service to U.S. sun destinations,” Kealey said.

“However, we’re encouraged by increased capacity to popular destinations in Mexico and the Caribbean, along with the introduction of new routes, including Costa Rica, Nassau, and Grand Cayman, that help meet our community’s continued appetite for travel.”

Travel consultant Elliot Finkelman says Porter Airlines’ increasing footprint in the capital may be having an impact on U.S. travel numbers.

“Porter is doing a lot of direct in Ottawa now down to the states, so I think a lot of people are hopping on that. It’s helping the Ottawa airport see increases in flights because they have a lot of direct flights down to Florida. They have a lot of direct flights to Newark,” he said.

The latest figures from Statistics Canada released in June show that Canadian-resident return trips by air and automobile from the United States have fallen sharply since the start of the year, with five consecutive months of steep year over year declines.

In June, Canadian residents returning from travel to the U.S. was down 22 per cent for trips by air and 33 per cent for trips by automobile from the same time in 2024.

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