It’s fair to say that 2025 hasn’t been the easiest year as far as relations between the United States of America and Canada are concerned. The first half of the year was marred by a trade dispute between the two nations, with bookings for transborder flights dropping as a result. With Canadian passengers subsequently looking to take their custom elsewhere, airlines from the country have shifted US capacity over to Latin American routes.
One US hub that has seen a particular drop on this front is 
Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) in Southern California. According to present scheduling data made available by Cirium, an aviation analytics company, flights between LAX and Canadian destinations are down by 13.4% this month compared to December 2024, with seat capacity dropping even further, by a factor of 18.7%. Let’s take a closer look at the current market.
Air Canada Accounts For Over Half Of LAX’s Canadian Capacity
Six airlines have scheduled 1,000 flights on routes between LAX and Canada this month, compared to 1,155 in December 2024. 
Air Canada accounts for more than half of this capacity, with 552 flights and 88,533 seats. While the latter only represents a 0.9% year-on-year decrease, the number of seats offered has dropped 10.3% year-on-year from last December’s total of 98,709, suggesting the deployment of smaller aircraft.
Indeed, Air Canada’s Los Angeles operations this month are almost entirely served by narrowbodies from the Airbus A220, A321, and Boeing 737 MAX families, with the only widebody exception being a single round trip from Toronto (YYZ) with the 787. Toronto and Vancouver (YVR) typically see four flights a day on average, while Montreal (YUL) has just over one on average. Commenting on its presence in LA, Air Canada said in 2017 that:
“Air Canada’s Maple Leaf Lounge at LAX offers an elegant series of intimate spaces that showcase contemporary Canadian design with club chairs from Calgary-based Birchwood, and wood tables from Brent Comber of British Columbia.”
Other Canadian Airlines Have Seen Big Cuts
Other leading Canadian operators have also reduced their presence in LA compared to this time last year. Porter Airlines has seen the most dramatic drop in proportional terms, cutting its capacity by 47.5%. Last December, the carrier operated two daily flights between Toronto and LAX on most days (59 round trips), but, this time around, its presence on the route has been reduced to a single daily Embraer E195-E2 flight, with 31 rotations.
Flair Airlines has also made a similar reduction on its Boeing 737 MAX 8 flights between Vancouver and Los Angeles. Last December, the Canadian ultra-low-cost carrier scheduled 23 flights each way on this West Coast route, but, this time around, the total has dropped by a factor of 30.4% to just 16 rotations.
WestJet has seen the biggest reduction in terms of raw numbers, with 80 fewer flights planned between LAX and Canada this month than in December 2024. With its presence on the route dropping from 346 flights to 266, this represented a 23.1% reduction, with seat capacity falling even further, by 27.4%. The carrier flies Boeing 737 aircraft from Los Angeles International Airport to Calgary (YYC), Edmonton (YEG), and Vancouver.
US Considers Ending Pre-Clearance Service In Canadian Airports Due To Travel Slump
The US Ambassador to Canada said the program will be “looked at.”
US Carriers’ Capacity Has Remained Steady
Contrastingly to their Canadian counterparts, the two US carriers operating Canada-bound flights from LAX have seen their December capacity remain steady year-on-year. Just like this time in 2024, Alaska Airlines has scheduled 13 round trips from Los Angeles to Kelowna (YLW) in the western province of British Columbia, with these flights being operated on its behalf by Embraer E175 regional jets from SkyWest Airlines.
These services will operate daily from December 18 to 31, with the exception of Christmas. Contrastingly, United Airlines’ sole Canada-bound route from LAX will see daily service throughout the month, with 31 round trips to and from Vancouver, just like December 2024. The outbound flights will all be operated by Boeing 737 MAX 8s, while the inbound rotations are split between 16 with the A320, 14 with the MAX 8, and one with the MAX 9.
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