Airline cancels all flights to Canada over ‘geopolitical instability’
Veronika BondarenkoOct 6, 2025 11:24 AM EDT
Edited by Celine Provini
The start of 2025 has proven tumultuous in multiple regions of the world and, in turn, has pushed airlines to rework into which regions they fly.
American Airlines (AAL) has named the volatile situation in the Middle East and the difficulty around “provid[ing] customers with certainty when planning travel” as reasons why it has no plans to restart service to Tel Aviv, even when competitors like United Airlines (UAL) and Delta Air Lines (DAL) have.
Ryanair (RYAAY) CEO Michael O’Leary also recently said there is a “real possibility” that the low-cost carrier “won’t bother going back to Israel.”
Amid the travel falloff that came after President Donald Trump imposed tariffs and repeatedly referred to Canada as “the 51st state” at the start of 2025, Canadian airlines such as Air Canada and WestJet have also significantly scaled back their service to smaller U.S. cities that previously saw growing demand.
Neos to cancel flight to Toronto International Airport by October 8
The latest carrier to cancel service over what it classifies as “international geopolitical instability” is the Italian low-cost carrier Neos. Launched in 2001 as a joint venture between Italian and Germany tourism companies, Neos launched its first flight to the U.S. with a Milan-JFK route in 2021 and a fifth-freedom flight to Canada in April 2023
Along with some tourists, the latter flight served in large part the Punjabi diaspora residing in Canada’s largest city.
The route between Amristar in northern India and Toronto with a stopover at Milan’s Malpensa Airport (MXP) provided a unique option connecting the three continents, but it’s now getting axed, as the brief armed conflict between India and Pakistan back in May caused bookings to plummet.
A ceasefire between the two countries was reached after several days of fighting that broke out after a Pakistani attack on the Indian side of disputed Kashmiri territory killed 25 tourists. The escalation in long-running tensions between the two nations has nonetheless fueled a larger atmosphere of wariness among travelers to the region.
“Terrorist attacks and violent civil unrest are possible,” the U.S. State Department states specifically for border regions. “Violence happens sporadically in this area and is common along the Line of Control between India and Pakistan.”
“We are forced to suspend all flights”: Neos
Even with much distance separating Kashmir from Amristar, Neos still saw its flight bookings drop off to the point of no longer making the flight viable.
The stopover flight that took over 21 hours in the air with a five-hour connection in Milan currently runs on a Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner (BA) with room for 359 passengers, of which 28 are premium economy seats.
