‘Remarkable deals’ spotted on airfare over Thanksgiving weekend

For those travelling for Thanksgiving, a boost in flight capacity is translating to more deals for air passengers. Here's what last-minute bookers should expect.

Despite some airlines collapsing or consolidating, Canadians air passengers can expect more seats and even some deals heading into the Thanksgiving long weekend this year.

Data from aviation analytics company Cirium shows that across the major Canadian airlines, total capacity is expected to be up by about 30,000 seats for the Oct. 11-14 weekend compared to Thanksgiving dates in 2023.

That’s despite the closure of Lynx Air, which folded in February of this year, and the consolidation of Swoop into WestJet.

While Air Canada, Air Transat, Flair and WestJet are all expected to see low-single-digit increases in seat capacity, the bulk of the improvements will come from Porter Airlines, with a jump of 37 per cent year-over-year.

“Most notably, Porter has been expanding aggressively, not just across Canada, but North America,” says Amra Durakovic, head of communications for Flight Centre Travel Group.

Seat capacity is more of a mixed picture for the Thanksgiving weekend in the domestic market, with WestJet, Flair and Air Transat seeing declines, while Air Canada posts a modest gain and Porter again leads the pack in growth.

Cirium notes that Porter has been scaling up in recent years, with plans for an additional 34 jets currently on order.

“They’ve expanded their fleet considerably,” says Jim Hetzel, director at Cirium. “However, I think overall they’re charging a little bit more for that.”