Air Canada is expanding its Mexico network for summer 2026, increasing seat capacity by 18% year-on-year as the carrier continues to pivot toward Latin America.
The airline will introduce new year-round service between Montreal and Guadalajara from June 2, operating three times per week, as well as boosting frequencies on routes to four Mexican destinations. Montreal-Cancun will rise from seven to 11X-weekly flights, Toronto-Monterrey from three to four, Vancouver-Mexico City from seven to 11, and Vancouver-Puerto Vallarta from one to two per week.
The expansion will lift Air Canada’s offering to 10X-daily flights from its three hubs—Montreal, Toronto Pearson and Vancouver—to five Mexican cities, totaling about 1,700 one-way seats per day during the summer peak.
“Since 1954, Mexico has been an important part of our global network, and this summer, Air Canada’s added capacity will further reinforce the longstanding tourism and commercial ties between our two countries,” says Mark Galardo, Air Canada’s executive vice president, Chief Commercial Officer and head of cargo.
OAG Schedules Analyser data shows that Air Canada offered about 735,200 two-way seats between Canada and Mexico in summer 2025 across 25 nonstop routes, giving it a 29.9% share of capacity. WestJet led the market with 34.8%, while Air Transat accounted for 12.1%.
The 18% planned increase for summer 2026 will intensify competition in what has become a strategically important leisure and VFR corridor for Canadian carriers. It also comes ahead of the 2026 FIFA World Cup, which will be jointly hosted by Canada, Mexico and the U.S., potentially stimulating additional cross-border travel flows.
Air Canada’s Mexico growth forms part of a broader Latin America strategy that has accelerated over the past year as geopolitical tensions dampened Canadian demand for U.S. travel. Friction triggered by U.S. trade policy and political rhetoric led to a sustained drop in transborder bookings during 2025. As reported by Aviation Week, Air Canada’s U.S. transborder revenue fell 10.4% year-on-year in 2025 on a 9.6% decline in capacity, with traffic down 12%.
In contrast, the airline reported strength in sixth-freedom flows and Latin American markets. “With improved schedule quality, we increased sixth-freedom revenues by 10% [in 2025] from 2024, reaching record levels,” Galardo said during a February earnings call.
He emphasized that Latin America represents a “very broad geography” and is not simply a diversion of U.S. capacity, but a structural opportunity to leverage Canada’s geography to connect Europe and Latin America over its hubs.
Air Canada’s winter 2026-27 plans include the resumption of Toronto-Quito service in December, earlier restarts of Lima and Rio de Janeiro, and expanded service from Montreal to Santiago and Bogota.
Across the industry, Canadian carriers have been shifting capacity south toward Latin America and the Caribbean. WestJet has reduced U.S. capacity by 16.7% for summer 2026 compared with summer 2025, while Air Transat and Flair Airlines are also scaling back their U.S. exposure.
However, the latest schedules indicate that despite softer demand trends in the transborder market, Air Canada plans to offer 9.57 million two-way seats between Canada and the U.S. this summer, up from 8.85 million a year earlier. That increase would lift its share of the Canada-U.S. market to 42.8%, from 38.9% last summer.