The flag carrier and national airline of Canada, Air Canada has significantly reworked its flight network multiple times over the last year as the high cost of jet fuel, security situation in the Middle East, and geopolitical tensions with the current U.S. administration influence where Canadians fly.
The airline has launched a number of new routes to smaller European cities such as Basel in Switzerland and Dubrovnik in Croatia, while suspending at least seven long-haul routes to India, the Middle East, and northern Africa.
The flight to the latter country’s capital of Algiers from Montréal-Trudeau International Airport (YUL) was launched in June 2017 as a seasonal summer flight between June and September. It ran for nearly a decade but, amid high jet fuel costs, was not brought back for 2026.
Air Canada permanently cuts only flight to Algeria, along with four others
Air Canada has now confirmed that it will not be returning the route to Houari Boumediene Airport (ALG) in Algiers in the summer of 2027, according to Simple Flying, which means the carrier has exited the country of Algeria as a market.
The move comes as part of wider network cuts that also include the cancellation of its India routes between Calgary and Delhi and Toronto and Mumbai, as well as an earlier cancellation of its flight to Dubai International (DXB) from Toronto Pearson International Airport (YYZ).
A flight between Vancouver (YYR) and Singapore Changi Airport (SIN) will also be phased out by January 2027.
Related: Another airline cancels almost all U.S. flights due to low demand
“If we can derisk this a little bit and move and be a bit proactive and move capacity into other sectors [where] we see strength, I think that’s the right move right now in this context,” Mark Galardo, Air Canada’s executive vice president, revenue and network planning and president of cargo, said of the airline’s wider network strategy at the start of 2026.
Routes to smaller cities that serve a particular market but do not always bring in the necessary traffic are often the first victim of such network changes.
Air Canada canceled five long-haul routes to Asia, the Middle East, and northern Africa for 2027.
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Which other airlines fly to North Africa from Canada?
The flight between Montreal and Algiers connected French Canadians to the French-speaking diaspora in northern Africa as well as members of the Algerian diaspora who live in Canada.
The initial plan was to run the flight on an Airbus A330-300 four times per week from June 2027. Mohammed V International Airport (CMN) in Morocco’s Casablanca is now the main airport connecting Air Canada to northern Africa; the airline flies to the city multiple times a week from Montreal.
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Air Algérie, the country’s national airline, currently operates a nine-hour direct flight to Montreal, and Royal Air Maroc flies to Toronto and Montreal. Air France is another major connector of flights to northern Africa through its Charles de Gaulle (CDG) hub.
Air Canada has not commented directly on the cancellation of the Algiers route but previously named jet fuel prices as “affecting some lower profitability routes and flights which now are no longer economically feasible.”
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