Air Canada Boosts US Transborder Network For Summer 2023

Credit: Joe Pries

Air Canada, which recently signaled optimism about next year’s Canadian domestic market, also sees strength in the US transborder market, revealing three new US services and a slew of resumed routes for the summer 2023 season.

From March 26, 2023, the Star Alliance member will launch service to New York Kennedy (JFK) from both Montreal (YUL) and Toronto Pearson (YYZ). The YYZ-JFK route will be operated 2X-daily, while the YUL-JFK service will be flown 1X-daily. Both will be operated with 76-seat Embraer E175 regional jets by Jazz Aviation under the Air Canada Express brand.

From June 1, 2023, Air Canada will open a new transcontinental transborder route connecting YYZ with Sacramento ((SMF), the capital of California. The YYZ-SMF service will be flown 4X-weekly with a 137-seat Airbus A220-300 aircraft.

Air Canada's senior VP of network planning and revenue management Mark Galardo said in a statement that during the 2023 summer season, the airline will operate more than 400 daily flights on 95 transborder routes to 47 US destinations. He noted the routes are part of the transborder joint venture (JV) operated by Air Canada and fellow Star member United Airlines.

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With the new JFK routes, Air Canada will serve all three major New York City airports, including LaGuardia (LGA) and Newark (EWR). During the summer 2023 season, the airline said it will operate 39 daily flights to the New York airports from six Canadian cities, offering 3,500 seats daily between Canada and the largest US market.

The carrier additionally is increasing frequencies on a number of already-operated US routes next summer and will also resume a host of routes suspended during the COVID-19 pandemic. In May 2023, the airline will restart four transborder routes from YUL: Nashville (BNA) in Tennessee, to be served 3X-weekly; Philadelphia (PHL), to be flown 2X-daily; Pittsburgh (PIT), to be operated 1X-daily; and Seattle (SEA), to be flown 1X-daily.

Other US transborder routes being resumed by Air Canada in May 2023 include: Vancouver (YVR) to Austin (AUS) to be flown 3X-weekly; YVR to Anchorage (ANC), to be operated daily; Calgary (YYC) to Los Angeles (LAX), to be flown daily; and YYZ to Milwaukee (MKE) in Wisconsin, to be flown daily. In June 2023, Air Canada will restart service from Toronto to four US airports: Hartford (BDL) in Connecticut; Kansas City (MCI) in Missouri; Portland (PDX) in Oregon; and Salt Lake City (SLC) in Utah. The MCI and PDX routes will be flown daily, while BDL service will be operated 2X-daily and SLC flights 3X-weekly. The airline will also restart daily Vancouver-Boston (BOS) service from June 17, 2023.

Aaron Karp

Aaron Karp is a Contributing Editor to the Aviation Week Network.