A strong decrease in Canadian travel For the United States, it has hit the airlines that generally charge the popular holidays of Florida Beach and family trips to Disneyland.
That remains to the airlines fighting to adjust their summer schedules, cut the flight capacity of the United States and add more seats to the destinations inside Canada and abroad.
Westjet, for example, says that it has reduced some capacity between Canada and the United States and has changed its summer schedule to redistribute aircraft to “strength markets”, including the destinations of Europe and Sun.
“The current political environment and differences in currency exchange rates probably contribute to demand change,” said Westjet spokesman Josh Yeats.
Air Canada says that, in mid -March, the transmission reserves fell around 10 percent for the next period of six months. The airline said it is adjusting some of its US flights through the use of smaller airplanes and reducing certain frequencies.
Porter Airlines, which has significantly increased its service to the United States during the past year, has slightly reduced its summer service to the USA. UU. And changed some capacity to national markets.
Although airlines often modify their schedules, it is unusual to see such a significant fall in the demand for travel in Canada-United States, said Mike Arnot, spokesman for the Cirium aircraft analysis firm.
“It’s a difficult place for airlines,” said Arnot.
Cirium analyzes data from third -party sources such as travel agencies and reservation websites, said Arnot. He found that summer reserves between the main Canadian cities and popular destinations of the United States have dropped almost 20 percent compared to last year.
On the contrary, reserves for the month of July among Canadian popular destinations have a trend in approximately 11 percent compared to last year.
Arnot said that because the data comes from third -party sites instead of directly from the airlines, and not all airlines reserve through these sites, the analysis reflects the general trends instead of the capacity of the precise airline.
At Calgary International Airport, travelers told CBC News that they are moving away from the United States this summer.
“We have a family in the United States that we will not see for a while, or we will meet them elsewhere because we are trying to put our dollars and cents elsewhere,” said Yael Staav, who returned to Toronto after a weekend in Calgary.
Bruna Machado, on the way to Brazil to visit the family, said that once he returns he plans to stay close to home.
“We are not going to the United States, we stay in Canada [to] Enjoy summer here, “said Machado.
Canadian Rate War
As many Canadians reconside their travel plans in the United States, some airlines have also added a new capacity to Europe. Air Canada added a new summer service between Montreal and Edimburg and uploaded the service to Paris, Rome and Athens.
Westjet has also added a new halifax service to Barcelona and Amsterdam.
Discover Airlines, which is owned by the German airline Lufthansa, anticipated that more Europeans will visit Canada this summer on their new route in Munich-Calgarry, and hopes that Canadians do the same.
“[The Munich airport] He has very short connection times, very short flights to other destinations in Europe, “CEO Bernd Bauer told CBC News at a recent press conference in Calgary.” It’s great to travel there. “
However, airlines are somewhat limited in their ability to deploy flights destined for the United States to the routes abroad, said aviation expert John Gradek.
North American flights generally use narrow body planes that cannot arrive from the west of Quebec to continental Europe, he said.
That means that there are limited opportunities to deploy these aircraft again anywhere other than the Canadian market, which could lead to an excess supply of Canadian seats during the summer travel season.
“My prognosis is that we will probably see a price war, starting at some point in early May,” he said.
Arnot also suggested that airlines could reduce prices to attract Canadians to take flights to the United States that cannot be canceled.
Although the demand for travel is being cushioned by the low Canadian dollar and the possible fears of recession, “it is possible that a relatively economic trip to New York may obtain,” Arnot said.
“It will be an interesting summer.”
