Air Canada is set to launch fresh daily services from Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport to four U.S. cities – New York, Boston, Chicago, and Washington, D.C. The airline plans to initiate four daily round-trip flights to New York LaGuardia starting in March 2026, followed by the introduction of three daily flights to Boston Logan, two to Chicago O’Hare, and one to Washington Dulles during the summer.
The move signifies an escalation in competition between Air Canada and Porter Airlines, which already operates flights to the same American destinations from Billy Bishop. The expansion of Air Canada’s services is enabled by the upcoming U.S. customs pre-clearance facility at the Toronto Island airport, as announced by Roelof-Jan Steenstra, PortsToronto’s CEO, during a recent news conference.
Once the pre-clearance facility becomes operational in the near future, passengers will have the convenience of clearing 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 on a decline, with a notable drop in the number of Canadian residents returning from the U.S. by air, based on recent Statistics Canada data.
In addition to the new U.S. routes, Air Canada also disclosed plans to enhance connectivity on domestic routes by adding one daily flight to Montreal and two to Ottawa. The airline will deploy 78-seat De Havilland Dash 8-400 aircraft on these routes.