WestJet suspends nine U.S. routes as Canadians avoid America
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The Canadian airline's service from Vancouver to Austin — a new route that was originally slated to start next week — is now on hold until October. Other previously popular cross-border flights, including routes to Orlando, Los Angeles and Chicago, have been halted for various periods between June and August, spokesperson Josh Yeats told Bloomberg News.
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The cancellations include routes for which WestJet is the only provider of nonstop flights.
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Airlines' changing summer plans underscore that many Canadians are still avoiding the U.S. because of the trade war and the anti-Canada rhetoric unleashed by President Donald Trump and members of his administration. Trump's repeated assertions that Canada should be a U.S. state is one factor causing people to ditch their usual summer vacations across the border.
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'WestJet continuously evaluates and adjusts its schedule to meet demand, and we remain committed to reviewing opportunities for direct service on these routes in the future,' Yeats said in a statement.
Meanwhile, WestJet has added domestic flights within Canada as well as services to Europe 'to help Canadians fly where they want to go,' Yeats said.
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WestJet's bigger rival, Air Canada, has also been hit by the decline in U.S. flight bookings while expanding its fleet. As a result, the firm is adding flights to Latin America later in the year.
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'We continue to monitor our U.S. routes and, as we said earlier, reallocate some capacity, but we also have new Airbus A220 and Boeing 737 Max aircraft entering the fleet that will be deployed to unlock new growth opportunities,' spokesperson Peter Fitzpatrick said in an emailed statement.
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In March, Air Canada reported a 10 per cent year-over-year decline in bookings for cross-border flights between Canada and the U.S. for the April-to-September period.
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