Could jet fuel costs affect direct international travel for Maritimers?

The rising cost of jet fuel is affecting some flight routes in Canada.

It started with one, then quickly turned into dozens of international flights cancelled from Canada.

“It’s a real deterrent to travel, particularly since most of us Canadians are not going to the U.S. by car anymore…we’re taking flights,” says Wendy Newman, a traveller at Halifax Stanfield International Airport.

But even some U.S flights are being scrapped.

Air Canada recently cut service from Canadian airports to four seasonal routes to Austin, Sacramento and Charleston, South Carolina as a result of surging fuel prices.

“Most of the cancellations we’ve seen have been out of major hubs like Montreal, Toronto, etc,” says Julia Kent, a spokesperson with CAA.

“In Atlantic Canada, we’re seeing canceled flights and changes, however, they are operational and domestic or regional, not international. So, for now, Atlantic Canadians remain unaffected when it comes to international cancellations due to fuel prices.”

That’s been proven true at Halifax’s international airport.

“Right now, we’ve seen minimal impact to scheduled service for our summer. And those have primarily affected one domestic route as well as one U.S. route,” says spokesperson Tiffany Chase.

“We are looking forward to a record summer here at Halifax Stanfield when it comes to international flights and particularly our connections to Europe. This year we’ll be connected to 15 different European airports, which is a new record for our airport.”

Though its good news for Maritime travellers, it’s brought on a renewed interest in having more direct international flights.

“Direct flights are the way to go. Any time you have a connection, you have a big risk of delay. And it’s a very long trip,” says Newman.

Some options are already in the works.

Late last month, Air Transat announced it will expand its service from Charlottetown to the Dominican Republic starting in December.

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