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Where Canadians are looking to fly: surprising study from Cheapflights.ca

Calgarians want to go to Toronto, Manila and Delhi. But Torontonians are most interested in looking at flights to Delhi, London and New York City.

Cheapflights.ca looked at 11.5 million searches from six major Canadian cities over the last 12 months and came up with some fascinating conclusions about what Canadians are looking for in terms of travel and also what it costs.

On a countrywide basis, they found 41% of our searches are for North America, 29% for Asia, 20% for Europe, 5% for Africa and 4% for South America, with just 2% for Oceania. For those searching for flights within North America, 46% were headed to the U.S., while 26% were pricing Canadian destiantions and 28% looking for places in Mexico, the Caribbean or other sun spots.

For Canadians as a whole, the most popular destinations for travel searches in the last 12 months were, in order, Delhi, London, Manila, Paris, Las Vegas, New York, Vancouver, Toronto, Bangkok and Cancun.

The Spice Market in Delhi, India. – JIM BYERS PHOTO

What’s perhaps most intriguing is how Canadians differ in what they’re searching for, depending on where they live. Here’s what Cheapflights.ca found when it comes to the most frequently searched travel destinations for six Canadian cities.

CALGARY: Toronto ($634), Manila ($1,181) and Delhi ($1,319)

MONTREAL: Casablanca, Morocco ($1,070), Paris ($818) and Fort Lauderdale ($463)

OTTAWA: London ($918), Orlando ($485) and Vancouver ($839)

TORONTO: Delhi ($1,277), London ($782) and New York ($305)

VANCOUVER: Beijing ($802), Delhi ($1,118) and Toronto ($700)

WINNIPEG: Toronto ($504), Manila ($1,333) and Delhi ($1,482)

The study also looked at the most affordable places for Canadians in those cities to fly. Here’s a look at those numbers.

CALGARY: Seattle ($389), Vancouver ($400) and San Francisco ($454)

MONTREAL: Toronto ($227), New York ($268) and Fort Lauderdale ($463)

OTTAWA: Toronto ($258), New York ($379) and Halifax ($413)

TORONTO: New York ($305), Cancun ($435) and Orlando ($443)

VANCOUVER: Los Angeles ($333), San Francisco ($391) and Calgary ($401)

WINNIPEG: Edmonton ($398), Calgary ($485) and New York ($494).

Los Angeles is one of the places Vancouver folks like to travel to the most. – JIM BYERS PHOTO

The study found that Fort Lauderdale is the most affordable spot for Canadians to fly
if they’re headed to Florida, with the average ticket costing $470. That’s $60 less than Miami.

They also found that while prices are climbing to some Caribbean places, including Jamaica and the Dominican Republic, Canadians can find good deals for places such as Guatemala and Costa Rica.

Asia also is becoming more popular and affordable. Prices depend on where you’re flying from, but for Canadians as a whole, it’s cheaper to fly to Beijing ($854 on average) than to Dublin, Ireland ($893).