Air Canada plans to launch flights to the U.S. out of Toronto’s island airport in a bid for business passengers that marks a direct challenge to rival Porter Airlines.
The country’s largest airline announced Thursday it will fly planes between Billy Bishop airport and New York’s LaGuardia Airport, Logan International in Boston, Chicago’s O’Hare International and Washington, D.C.’s Dulles International, starting next spring for a total of 10 daily return flights.
It will also ramp up its flight frequency to Montreal and Ottawa from the airport, which sits near Toronto’s downtown.
The launch of transborder trips will follow the arrival of a U.S. customs pre-clearance facility at Billy Bishop that allows passengers to be screened by U.S. border guards before taking off.
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The shift comes as part of a renewed focus on business passengers and more profitable routes, as cross-border corporate travel holds steady despite plummeting demand from leisure travellers put off by U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariff policies and divisive rhetoric.
“This is our most significant expansion at Toronto island since Air Canada first served the airport 35 years ago,” chief commercial officer Mark Galardo said in a news release.
“The new transborder routes will especially benefit our loyal customers and business travellers by creating frequent and easy connections between the heart of Canada’s financial capital and the major markets of New York, Boston, Washington and Chicago.”
The move also represents rising competition with a rapidly expanding Porter Airlines, which runs routes out of Billy Bishop — its headquarters and home base — to all six of the urban areas Air Canada is targeting.
However, both Air Canada and Porter have cut capacity to several regions in the U.S., particularly in the south, due to Canadians’ aversion to their neighbour following Trump’s election.
Last month, the number of Canadians returning from the U.S. by air fell 27 per cent compared with September 2024, according to Statistics Canada, continuing a months-long trend.
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