Porter Airlines is the latest Canadian carrier to tweak its schedule based on weakening demand for US travel, though it pledged to maintain a substantial operation to the USA during the summer air travel season.
A revised summer schedule released on 31 March shows Porter stepping up domestic flying to 80% of its total network capacity, versus its previous plan of 75%.
“This is balanced by targeted frequency reductions in select US markets,” Porter says. “Despite the changes, Porter’s presence in the Canada-US market will be 25% larger than last summer.”
Most of the changes include stepping up frequencies on existing routes, including transcontinental flights between Eastern Canada and Vancouver and Victoria.
Toronto-based Porter has in recent years pursued an aggressive expansion plan across North America with a now 44-strong fleet of Embraer E195-E2s. It flies to several US cities, including Chicago, Boston, New York, Phoenix, Las Vegas, Los Angeles and San Francisco.
Porter is expecting to receive another six E195-E2s and holds options for a further 50. It also operates a regional network with a fleet of nearly 30 De Havilland Canada DHC Dash 8-400s, including to some cities in the Northeast USA.
Canadian carriers have seen softening demand amid geopolitical tensions between Canada and the USA – largely related to a potentially escalating trade war – and the rise of the “buy Canada” movement encouraging Canadians to spend domestically.
“Our goal is to fly where our customers want to travel, and this is a moment [where] Canada is at the top of many people’s list,” says Kevin Jackson, Porter’s president. “We are adding routes and increasing flights in regions across the country to meet this demand.”
Last week, Calgary-based low-cost carrier Flair Airlines revealed that snow-bird travel could be impacted by slowing demand during the upcoming winter travel season.
Flair said that, with ”demand for US sun trips cooling down”, its winter schedule places priority on domestic destinations.
With its fleet of Boeing 737s, Flair plans to step up Vancouver-Calgary flights to 21 weekly, a 40% increase over the previous winter. It is also focusing capacity on Edmonton-Abbotsford and Vancouver-Toronto, and increasing frequencies on flights to Mexico and Jamaica.
With US demand lagging, Canadian carriers are also counting on the lucrative transatlantic market.
Air Canada, which recently informed investors that bookings for air travel to US cities are down roughly 10% in the spring and summer months, resumed on 1 April flights between Ottawa and London.
Rival WestJet, meanwhile, is marketing new transatlantic flights from Halifax to Barcelona and Amsterdam.
Montreal-based leisure carrier Air Transat does not focus on flights to the USA, but rather on transatlantic flights to European vacation destinations.
It flies to two destinations in Florida – Orlando and Fort Lauderdale – and no other US cities. Those routes represent about 3% of its passenger capacity as measured in available seat kilometres.
But during the carrier’s most-recent earnings call, chief Annick Guerard said Transat is watching for impacts from the US-instigated trade war, pointing to weakening Canadian currency and concerns of a broad economic downturn.
