Air Canada suspends six routes
Air Canada has suspended six routes it says are “no longer economically feasible” amid the jet‑fuel cost shock, a concrete example of carriers trimming service as fuel prices surge (cbc.ca). That suspension came alongside wider industry warnings that route adjustments — not just price hikes — are already underway in response to the fuel squeeze (wingsmagazine.com) (euronews.com).
Air Canada is suspending six routes after jet fuel prices doubled, saying some flights are no longer economical to operate. (aircanada.com) The airline said April 17 that Fort McMurray-Vancouver will stop on May 28, Yellowknife-Toronto on Aug. 30, and Salt Lake City-Toronto on June 30, with the Salt Lake route slated to return in 2027. (aircanada.com) Air Canada is also pausing Toronto-John F. Kennedy and Montreal-John F. Kennedy on June 1, with both New York routes scheduled to resume on Oct. 25, and it has shelved a planned Montreal-Guadalajara launch. The carrier said affected customers will be contacted with alternate travel options. (aircanada.com) The cuts amount to about 1 per cent of Air Canada’s planned annual capacity, measured in available seat miles, the industry metric for how many seats an airline flies over how many miles. (aircanada.com) Air Canada said it still plans to offer 34 daily flights from Canada to New York-area airports through LaGuardia and Newark after the John F. Kennedy suspensions begin. CBC reported the cuts remove one Montreal flight and three Toronto flights to JFK. (cbc.ca) Jet fuel is refined from crude oil and moved to airports by ship and pipeline, then stored before airlines buy and load it onto aircraft. The International Air Transport Association says fuel makes up about 30 per cent of airline costs. (pbs.org) The wider squeeze is tied to the Iran war and the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz, a shipping route that Argus Media says normally carries about 40 per cent of Europe’s jet fuel imports. The International Energy Agency’s Fatih Birol told the Associated Press that Europe had “maybe six weeks” of jet fuel supplies left as of April 16. (pbs.org) (euronews.com) Other airlines are already trimming service too. Euronews, citing Associated Press reporting, said Scandinavian carrier SAS had said earlier in April that it would cancel at least 1,000 flights this month because of surging fuel prices. (euronews.com) Air Canada said the route changes are part of its regular profitability review, but the timing shows how quickly a fuel shock can move from higher fares to fewer flights. For now, the airline is cutting marginal routes first and keeping larger corridors in place. (aircanada.com) (cbc.ca)
