Logan Airport is starting to see decline in Canadian travelers
The drop in April marked the first year-over-year decline in Canadian visitors at the airport in 2025; the total is still up slightly for the year so far, when compared to the first four months of 2024. (May passenger traffic numbers are not yet public.)
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'That's obviously incredibly disappointing [but] with one month of data, I'm not ready to press the panic button,' Davey said in an interview earlier this month, after Massport published the April numbers.
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National statistics released by the Canadian government
last week
indicate the trend most likely continued at Logan through May. Plane trips by Canadian residents from the US fell 24 percent in May, year over year, while Canadian vehicular trips
from the US fell 38 percent.
The backlash in Canada started early this year. Then-Prime Minister Justin Trudeau urged Canadians to vacation in their home country instead of going to the US, as President Trump imposed new tariffs on goods imported from Canada and talked repeatedly about the benefits of Canada becoming the '51st state.'
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Current prime minister Mark Carney has strongly rebuffed the 51st state idea, though he indicated several days ago that he's hopeful about progress with the Trump administration on trade issues. In an attempt to counteract some of the Trump administration's hostility, Governor Maura Healey on Monday will be hosting in Boston several Canadian premiers and governors from Northeast states to talk about ways to maintain strong economic relations among the states and provinces.
Much is at stake: Visiting Canadians spent an estimated $20 billion in the US last year.
Amid the pushback in Canada to US leisure travel, JetBlue decided to cancel a new flight from Boston to Halifax it had planned, and Porter Airlines cut one of its Boston flights to Ottawa.
Travel research firm Tourism Economics is predicting much bigger drops ahead for Greater Boston, with 657,000 Canadian visits expected to the region in 2025, a 20 percent decline from 2024, and a 24 percent drop from what was originally projected for 2025.
David O'Donnell, a vice president with the Meet Boston tourism bureau, said his organization hasn't yet heard from local hotels about Canadian travel, but it expects a decline in international travelers to pick up in the summer. Many visitors who booked in the first half of the year would have faced cancellation fees if they opted not to come, but in the second half of the year, many of the bookings will reflect decisions made since Trump took office.
Concerns about Canadian tourism
prompted state Senator John Keenan of Quincy to file a budget amendment last month requiring the Massachusetts Office of Travel and Tourism to report to the Legislature the feasibility of promoting Massachusetts as a destination for residents of countries showing a decline in travel to this state in 2025. The Senate adopted the language as part of its state budget proposal, but its fate now remains tied to House-Senate budget negotiations.
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'Clearly our Canadian numbers, like those at a lot of other [US] airports, are going in the wrong direction,' Davey said. 'I hope it's not a canary in the coal mine for us, but we're going to keep a close eye on it.'
Jon Chesto can be reached at
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