For some Canadians, the collision between an Air Canada jet and a fire truck that killed the plane’s two pilots at LaGuardia Airport may become yet another reason to avoid traveling to the United States.
News coverage in Canada Monday about the fate of the short flight from Montreal to New York concentrated on the struggles and shortcomings of the American air traffic control system, prompting Steven MacKinnon, the minister for Transport Canada, the country’s airline regulator, to reassure Canadians about air safety.
“We will be continuing to work together to get to the bottom to find the answers that Canadians are going to be looking for,” he told the House of Commons. Earlier in an interview with the French service of the CBC, Mr. MacKinnon said that Canada’s examination includes “the labor shortage among air traffic controllers.”
The Transportation Safety Board of Canada has sent a team of investigators to New York to assist their American counterparts. The Canadian agency is involved not just because the flight involved Air Canada and Jazz Aviation, the Canada-based carrier that operates Air Canada Express flights. The jetliner was also designed and built in Canada by Bombardier, which is based in Montreal. (Bombardier sold its regional airliner business to Mitsubishi of Japan, which shut down production of new aircraft, but continues to offer parts and other services for the aircraft that remain in operation.)
In a statement the Canadian safety board deferred all comment on the investigation to its American counterpart.
Since the beginning of President Trump’s return to office and the start of his trade attacks on Canada and his calls for its annexation by the United States, many Canadians have stopped traveling to their nearest neighbor.
Statistics Canada, the census agency, reported on Monday that travel between the two countries fell by 22 percent in January over the same month a year earlier, the 13th consecutive month of decline.
The change in travel patterns began as a boycott and then was further fueled by fears among Canadians about being caught up in Mr. Trump’s immigration roundups.
Monday presented Canadian travelers with a sharp contrast to their own air traffic control system.
A private, not for profit company largely funded by fees charged to airlines and other aircraft operators took over Canada’s system nearly 30 years ago. The arrangement means that the government no longer contributes to the cost of the system. It has also avoided the staffing shortages common in the United States while modernizing the technology it uses to guide flying.
On Monday at Montreal’s Trudeau International Airport, there was little to no disruption or any obvious effects of the collision in New York.
Among the few people affected was Dr. Erik Geibig, 55, a physician from Tennessee who was visiting his son who is studying in Montreal. Flight delays meant that he was boarding an airport hotel shuttle rather than returning home.
“Mondays are normally quiet,” Edna Akanwoke, 34, an Air Canada employee who generally works on the departures counters for U.S. bound flights. “Today is especially quiet.”
Nasuna Stuart-Ulin contributed reporting from Montreal.
Ian Austen reports on Canada for The Times. A Windsor, Ontario, native now based in Ottawa, he has reported on the country for two decades. He can be reached at [email protected].
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