Zihuatanejo-Ixtapa Message Board - Air Canada Cancels Non-Stop Service between ZIH and Toronto

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Air Canada appears to have discontinued its long-running non-stop route between Toronto and ZIH.

The changes began when Air Canada's winter 2027 schedule replaced the Saturday morning flight with a Thursday Rouge service. Over the past two weeks, it has also routed the southbound leg through Montreal, turning the trip into an overnight journey. Some nonstop return flights still appear on Air Canada’s website, but I worry they too will eventually require connections.

Before COVID, three flights operated weekly from YYZ to ZIH—two by Air Canada and one by Sunwing. Ticket prices have more than doubled over the past five years. Unfortunately, all but the most devoted Zihua visitors now have a strong incentive to choose other Mexican destinations. ZIH needs more visitors with the spending power to support the local economy, and the added cost and inconvenience of travelling there will not help.

Let’s hope and encourage Porter Airlines to take over the route. It could be more profitable than competing with Air Canada and other carriers on the already well-served Puerto Vallarta and Cancun routes.

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And also troubling is that Alaska Air, at least for now has downsized the jets they are flying from LAX to ZIH. They are now flying the Embraer 175's which are smaller, cramped and uncomfortable for a nearly 4 hour flight. The Alaska rep I spoke with indicated that demand for their Mexico flights had dropped off.

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so far, Alaska's change has not impacted my 10/10 itinerary from Lax,

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Does that mean the hip replacement is going well?

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Don t know the answer to that, as the dog and I had to mostly cancel our walks due to time constraints of moving and trying to improve the new digs. The pooch is pretty durable though she won t earn qny AKC medals. Unless AK Air changes course on the screw worm, we are both moving ahead on plans to head south next month.

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My plane was downsized. Small plane on Alaska from LAX to ZIH in February 2027.
Same small plane (just 76 seats), flying back to LAX.

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I normally change my reservation once or twice before departing to Zihua. I am too old now to stress about such issues, I don't have a lot of good things to sat about Alaska Airanymore , but traveling with a pooch on 3 flights has so far over 7 yrs worked well.

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I wonder whether the AS LAX-ZIH flight would get more business if Alaska Airlines hadn’t pushed people away.

AS was my standard airline for years from Vancouver.

6:00 a.m. departure from YVR. Connect at LAX. Be at ZIH at something like 3:30 p.m. The return flight left at something like 5:00 p.m. and arrived at Vancouver around midnight.

Years ago they changed the schedule, now requiring an overnight stay at LAX in each direction.

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We could still make it in a day from Seattle but for years have chosen. It to. We would have to leave home around 3:30. No thank you. There are plenty of hotels near LAX that are reasonably inexpensive. We actually use our Hilton points to stay for free. Our preference would be a direct flight, but since we can’t this seems easiest to us.

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My preferred route now is AeroMexico, via MEX. I travel with my dog and I can usually get a flight around 23:15 with connection at MEX and into ZIH by the afternoon.

I leave ZIH on an evening flight to MEX and arrive at YVR around 06:30.

Travelling with my dog certainly complicates things and increases costs. At least once the fares for my dog have been more than a passenger fare.

Next month I have to overnight at MEX due to a 19 hour layover. I shudder at the cost of a hotel near the airport that will permit my dog.

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My preferred route now is AeroMexico, via MEX. I travel with my dog and I can usually get a flight around 23:15 with connection at MEX and into ZIH by the afternoon.

I leave ZIH on an evening flight to MEX and arrive at YVR around 06:30.

Travelling with my dog certainly complicates things and increases costs. At least once the fares for my dog have been more than a passenger fare.

Next month I have to overnight at MEX due to a 19 hour layover. I shudder at the cost of a hotel near the airport that will permit my dog.

A 19-hour layover? You could rent a car and drive and be here before your flight arrived and probably save money and enjoy yourselves a lot more.

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If I were arriving in the morning, that would be a theoretical possibility, but the flight arrives at something like 3:30 p.m. Wait for my two pieces of 62 linear inch luggage and my maximum size carryon, and my dog in a large crate. Then get my dog’s paperwork done. Then clear customs. Then get a van, (because my luggage wouldn’t all fit into a sedan and I would be lucky to get out of MEX by 6:00 p.m.

Google Maps says 13 hours from Benito Juarez Airport to Zihuatanejo, arriving at about 7:00 a.m. At that point I would have been up for over 24 hours.

I have more sense than that.

My experience with one-way car rentals to Zihuatanejo has been that the drop fees are horrendous. I have vivid memories of renting a small sedan in Guadalajara in 2012 and dropping it at ZIH. The cost was $1200 (dollars, not pesos). The drop fee was as much as the rental fee. I understand that Hertz’ drop fees is M$9 (plus IVA) per kilometer. At ~650 km the drop fee alone would being the range of M$6,700.

I shudder to think what the total cost would be from MEX to ZIH… And then there is gas and cuota fees.

I’m starting to convince myself that the hotel option looks good. ???? Or maybe I,could rent a van for one day and sleep in it. Hmm, that might not be the safety level I would prefer.

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If I were arriving in the morning, that would be a theoretical possibility, but the flight arrives at something like 3:30 p.m. Wait for my two pieces of 62 linear inch luggage and my maximum size carryon, and my dog in a large crate. Then get my dog’s paperwork done. Then clear customs. Then get a van, (because my luggage wouldn’t all fit into a sedan and I would be lucky to get out of MEX by 6:00 p.m.

Google Maps says 13 hours from Benito Juarez Airport to Zihuatanejo, arriving at about 7:00 a.m. At that point I would have been up for over 24 hours.

I have more sense than that.

My experience with one-way car rentals to Zihuatanejo has been that the drop fees are horrendous. I have vivid memories of renting a small sedan in Guadalajara in 2012 and dropping it at ZIH. The cost was $1200 (dollars, not pesos). The drop fee was as much as the rental fee. I understand that Hertz’ drop fees is M$9 (plus IVA) per kilometer. At ~650 km the drop fee alone would being the range of M$6,700.

I shudder to think what the total cost would be from MEX to ZIH… And then there is gas and cuota fees.

I’m starting to convince myself that the hotel option looks good. ???? Or maybe I,could rent a van for one day and sleep in it. Hmm, that might not be the safety level I would prefer.

I've taken the bus from here to Mexico City with a large dog before the nice Autopista del Sol was built. We had one stop in Acapulco. It should be a much easier trip now. And they have direct buses.

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How much bus time from CDMX to Zihuatanejo, please?

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Rome2rio says about 9 hours. (Handy website for planning travel.

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How much bus time from CDMX to Zihuatanejo, please?

I took an overnight from Zihuatanejo to CDMX. It took a bit over 8 hours. And that was before the upgraded autopista was finished. This bus only had a few stops as I remember. I had a hard time sleeping on the bus, though. The sound of snoring was deafening.

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Air Canada appears to have discontinued its long-running non-stop route between Toronto and ZIH.

The changes began when Air Canada's winter 2027 schedule replaced the Saturday morning flight with a Thursday Rouge service. Over the past two weeks, it has also routed the southbound leg through Montreal, turning the trip into an overnight journey. Some nonstop return flights still appear on Air Canada’s website, but I worry they too will eventually require connections.

Before COVID, three flights operated weekly from YYZ to ZIH—two by Air Canada and one by Sunwing. Ticket prices have more than doubled over the past five years. Unfortunately, all but the most devoted Zihua visitors now have a strong incentive to choose other Mexican destinations. ZIH needs more visitors with the spending power to support the local economy, and the added cost and inconvenience of travelling there will not help.

Let’s hope and encourage Porter Airlines to take over the route. It could be more profitable than competing with Air Canada and other carriers on the already well-served Puerto Vallarta and Cancun routes.

I'm booked on WestJet direct from Calgary to Zihua 11 November....and planning to stay for 5 or 6 months. Sure hope they don't change it.
I'll probably do 2, or even 3 quick overnight trips back to Vancouver to restart the clock on my health insurance. For those, I'll do Aeromexico ZIH/MEX/YVR and return. Lands late night in Vancouver and leaves early next morning back to MEX. Spending the night at YVR isn't so bad. At my age, those 3 overnight trips cost significantly less than buying extra health insurance.

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