Air Canada is set to launch daily flights from Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport to four U.S. destinations, including New York, Boston, Chicago, and Washington, D.C. Starting in March 2026, Air Canada will operate four daily round-trip flights to New York LaGuardia. Following this, during the summer season, the airline plans to introduce three daily flights to Boston Logan, two to Chicago O’Hare, and one to Washington Dulles.
This move by Air Canada represents an escalation in the competition between Porter Airlines, based at Billy Bishop, and the national carrier. The new routes are made possible by the implementation of U.S. customs pre-clearance at the Toronto Island airport, as stated by Roelof-Jan Steenstra, CEO of PortsToronto, the parent company of Billy Bishop, during a recent press conference.
The pre-clearance facility is expected to open in the coming months, allowing passengers to clear American customs before boarding their flights while still on Canadian soil. This development comes at a time when Canadian travel to the U.S. is declining, with a significant drop in the number of Canadian residents returning from the U.S. by air, according to recent Statistics Canada data.
In response to the changing travel landscape, Air Canada and other airlines have adjusted their capacities on certain U.S. routes or suspended services altogether. Alongside the new U.S. routes, Air Canada also announced an increase in the frequency of two domestic routes, adding one daily flight to Montreal and two to Ottawa. These routes will be serviced by 78-seat De Havilland Dash 8-400 aircraft.
