Airline pulls out of RDU, citing decline in Canadian visitors to the US
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- WestJet cuts RDU-Calgary flights amid decline in transborder travel demand.
- Statistics Canada: Car visits to the U.S. fell nearly 31% last year vs. 2024.
- RDU now has 18 airlines; officials recruit carriers to maintain competition.
Canada’s second-busiest airline will not be returning to Raleigh-Durham International Airport this year, citing fewer Canadians visiting the United States.
WestJet flew nonstop between RDU and Calgary last summer and early fall, and airport officials had expected the seasonal service to resume this year. Instead, it’s one of several routes between western Canada and the United States that WestJet has scrubbed, according to Ishrion Aviation.
WestJet saw a significant decline in demand for transborder travel in 2025, according to spokeswoman Julia Kaiser. As a result, the airline adjusted its schedule to ”stay aligned with where Canadians want to go,” Kaiser wrote in an email, reducing transborder flights by up to 15%.
“We see no indication that this trend will change in the foreseeable future and have made further reductions to our transborder network in 2026, including the suspension of service between Calgary and Raleigh-Durham,” she wrote.
WestJet is not alone in seeing a decline in Canadians visiting the United States.
Statistics Canada, the country’s national statistics agency, says the number of Canadians who visited the U.S. by car fell nearly 31% last year compared to 2024. In December, Democrats on the congressional Joint Economic Committee issued a report saying President Donald Trump’s tariffs on Canada and threats to make it the 51st state had stirred Canadians to boycott the U.S., hurting businesses in border states.
Meanwhile, demand for WestJet flights within Canada and to Latin America, the Caribbean, Europe and Asia remains strong, according to Kaiser. “As such, WestJet has redeployed its fleet by increasing capacity on routes Canadians want to fly,” she wrote.
Canadians weren’t the only ones flying between the Triangle and Calgary. RDU officials had touted the WestJet flight as a convenient way to get to the Canadian Rockies in Alberta and to the airline’s hub in Calgary, with connections to dozens of other cities in Canada.
WestJet is the second international carrier to pull out of RDU this winter. BermudAir ended its nonstop service in Bermuda on Jan. 2, less than 9 months after its Triangle debut.
WestJet’s departure reduces the number of airlines doing business at RDU to 18, still an unusually large number for a mid-sized airport. RDU officials have aggressively recruited airlines and encouraged new flights to unserved markets because they say it gives travelers more choices and creates competition that can help keep fares down.
With the loss of Calgary and Bermuda, Triangle travelers can book nonstop flights to a dozen international destinations, including five in Europe, two in Mexico and three in Canada. Air Canada flies between RDU and Toronto and Montreal and during the summer to Vancouver.
This story was originally published February 9, 2026 at 4:23 PM.
