Cheapflights.ca Ranks 20 Most Popular Airports Serving Canadians

TORONTO, ON--(Marketwired - Sep 17, 2014) - For the fourth consecutive year, Cheapflights.ca, the online leader in finding and publishing travel deals, has tapped into its database of airfare searches and ranked the most popular Canadian and U.S. border airports on affordability. The 2014 Canadian Airport Affordability Index is based on the average airfares site users found when searching for flights to popular destinations from the 20 most popular airports during the month of August. 

The annual Cheapflights Canadian Airport Affordability Index is a baseline for comparing airports and airfares, both in the moment and over time. The rankings include the previous year's position for each airport as well. While Kelowna made the jump into the top spot, St. John's gained the most ground versus last year. Meanwhile, the U.S. border airports slipped some in the rankings, showing the effect of the current currency disparity. Nonetheless, with travellers seeing an average airfare of C$414 from Bellingham to Honolulu in August versus C$493 from Vancouver, it's still worthwhile to do your homework and maybe take a drive. And don't always assume bigger is better when it comes to affordable airports either. In August, the airfares our users found from Ottawa's Macdonald-Cartier to Miami averaged C$370 compared to C$415 when flying from Toronto's Pearson International.

"This year's Airport Affordability Index underscores just how fluid airfares tend to be," said Melisse Hinkle, editor at Cheapflights.ca. "While getting away is a priority for many Canadians, so too is being savvy about saving on travel. The good news is that your hometown airport might be a truly affordable option. But the real takeaways are that finding flight deals often means exploring all your options, and being flexible can be the real key to stretching your travel budget."

Below are the Cheapflights.ca rankings of the 20 airports with the average return airfare, including taxes, for travel to some of the most popular destinations:

Ranking		Airport		2014 Ave. Airfare		2013 Rank
1		Kelowna (YLW)		C$308		2
2		Victoria International (YYJ)		C$344		4
3		Bellingham International, WA (BLI)		C$353		1
4		Saskatoon (YXE)		C$434		11
5		Winnipeg International (YWG)		C$441		7
6		Regina (YQR)		C$462		9
7		Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County, MI (DTW)		C$482		5
8		Ottawa's Macdonald-Cartier International (YOW)		C$484		8
9		Calgary International (YYC)		C$484		15
10		Montréal - Pierre Elliott Trudeau (YUL)		C$486		13
11		Buffalo Niagara International, NY (BUF)		C$489		6
12		St. John's (YYT)		C$508		20
13		Edmonton International (YEG)		C$510		12
14		Quebec City Jean Lesage (YQB)		C$513		10
15		Moncton (YQM)		C$525		3
16		Halifax International (YHZ)		C$553		18
17		Vancouver International (YVR)		C$539		19
18		Burlington International, VT (BTV)		C$541		N/A
19		Hamilton (YHM)		C$550		N/A
20		Toronto's Lester B. Pearson International (YYZ)		C$555		17

Cheapflights.ca's sister site in the U.S., Cheapflights.com, also issues an annual Airport Affordability Rankings featuring the average airfare to key destinations for the 101 most popular airports in the U.S. As many Canadians travel to, from and within the U.S., this report can be an additional useful guide for seeing how these airports stack up.

Methodology
Cheapflights.ca compiled this ranking based on user searches during the month of August 2014. The airports ranked were the 20 most searched Canadian and U.S. border airports and the average airfares were calculated using the flight prices our users found to popular destinations, including Montreal, Miami, Los Angeles, London, Cancun and Vancouver.

To see Cheapflights.ca's full list of the 20 airports ranked on affordability, visit
www.cheapflights.ca/news/2014-airport-affordability-index.

About Cheapflights.ca, part of the Momondo Group
Momondo Group is an online travel media and technology company that is driven by the belief that an open world is a better world. The group now serves travel search and inspiration to over 17.5 million visitors a month -- plus 7 million travel newsletter subscribers via its Cheapflights (www.cheapflights.ca) and momondo (www.momondo.com) brands.

Skygate began the sourcing of complex air-travel data in 1992, while Cheapflights pioneered the online comparison of flight deals for users in 1996 and momondo launched meta-search in the Nordic countries in 2006. 

The Group has offices in London, Copenhagen, Boston and Toronto, with a consumer base across more than 25 core international markets but users all over the world.

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