WestJet, Icelandair Cut Transatlantic Routes from Halifax

It’s been a week of disappointing announcements when it comes to routes out of Halifax Stanfield International Airport (YHZ), with three transatlantic flights being pulled from the schedule for next year.

WestJet was the first to announce that two of its routes are on the chopping block. Both the Halifax-Copenhagen and Halifax-Madrid routes had only operated for the summer 2026 season, with a planned return for 2027. Recently filed scheduling data, however, indicates neither route will be operating out of the East Coast airport once this season concludes.

Related: WestJet Expands Routes Out of Halifax

 

Now Icelandair has also pulled the plug on its flight from Halifax. The flight was Icelandair’s shortest North American route, at only five hours flying overnight to land in the early morning hours. That was by design, intending to make connections to onward destinations easy for those flying from Halifax, with the top destinations, according to aviation website Simple Flying, being Oslo, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Copenhagen, Munich, Berlin, Stockholm, Zurich, London, and Helsinki. Over half of those (Amsterdam, Frankfurt, London — both Heathrow and Gatwick and Zurich) already have direct flights from Halifax, which likely made connecting through Reykjavik less attractive for many travellers. 

Simple Flying points out that the high cost of fuel means that the “tolerance of loss-making or marginal-performing routes has weakened” meaning that more cuts are inevitable.   

Related: Halifax Stanfield Opens New International Arrivals Area

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