Airlines are confirming winter schedules that include new non-stop routes out of Vancouver International Airport (YVR) as well as increased frequencies on existing routes to places such as Mexico.
Some of the new capacity for those additions come at the expense of routes and flight frequency between Canada and the U.S.
Air Canada confirmed plans Monday to launch weekly round-trip flights between Vancouver and Huatulco, Mexico between Dec. 7 and April 12. Flights are on Sundays. The airline has previously flown to Huatulco from Toronto but not from Vancouver.
It also plans during peak periods to increase its frequency between YVR and Los Cabos, Mexico, to five weekly round-trips, up from four, and to daily round-trips between YVR and Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, up from six, the airline said.
It is not alone in planning to provide more access to Mexico.
Flair Airlines plans in October to increase its weekly flights between YVR and Mexico's Guadalajara International Airport (GDL) to four times per week, up from three.
Demand is driving the changes.
A news report in the Rio Times noted Canadian visits to Mexico were up 11.8 per cent in the first two months of 2025 versus the same period last year. BIV was not able to find official Mexican government statistics for that timeframe.
Airbnb Inc. (Nasdaq:ABNB) on May 1 released quarterly earnings and said in a letter to shareholders that the number of nights booked by its Canadian guests visiting Mexico jumped 27 per cent in March, compared with the same month a year ago.
Much evidence points to fewer trips by Canadians to the U.S., in part due to political animosity as U.S. President Donald Trump has frequently called Canada "the 51st state."
Air Canada spokeswoman Angela Mah told BIV that her airline’s non-stop Vancouver route to Washington, D.C. no longer exists. Instead that route has been “modified” so it can be done via a stop in Toronto, she said.
This followed Air Canada’s executive vice-president of revenue and network planning, Mark Galardo, telling analysts on a February conference call that his airline was reducing other U.S. flight capacity.
“We are proactively acting in specific markets like certain U.S. leisure destinations, such as Florida, Vegas and Arizona,” he said.
“We are reducing our capacity exposure to these markets from March onward.”
While travel to Mexico by Canadians has been increasing steadily, visits by Mexicans to Canada has declined largely because Canada on Feb. 28, 2024, made the sudden announcement that the following day Mexicans would need visas to enter Canada. That threw a wrench into the works for many Mexicans who had already booked trips to come to Canada.
Then-immigration minister Marc Miller's rationale was that the move was a way to curb the number of asylum claims in Canada.
Destination BC's most recent monthly data for entries to Canada through B.C. entry points is for February 2025. It showed a 34.8 per cent decline in Mexican nationals entering Canada through B.C. entry points in that month, compared with February 2024. That was a steeper decline in year-over-year visits in that month than from any other country.
Air Canada yesterday announced a flurry of other new routes and flight-frequency increases out of other Canadian hubs, counting four new destinations, 13 new routes and 16 per cent more capacity.
The airline has introduced several new non-stop routes to Asia in the past few years, to places such as Singapore, Manila and Bangkok.
The route to Manila launched in April, so this will be the first winter that Air Canada has flown this route. Philippine Airlines has long flown non-stop between Vancouver and Manila so that route now has more capacity.
Flair's overall frequency out of YVR is set to rise 13 per cent to 102 flights per week between Oct. 26 and April 14, the airline told BIV in March.
