The 500,000 Flights a Year That Give Canada Leverage Over the US Economy

By The Decision Room

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500,000. That's how many flights passed through ONE patch of sky last year — controlled not from America, not from Europe, but from a small town in Newfoundland, Canada, called Gander. The North Atlantic is the busiest oceanic airspace on Earth — up to 3,000 flights a day between North America and Europe, over 1,000 crossing every single night. And virtually all of it, on the western half of the ocean, flies through airspace controlled by Canada. The Gander flight information region handled a record 500,000 flights in 2024. Every American airliner bound for Europe checks in with a Canadian voice before crossing the water — and pays NAV CANADA roughly $210 per crossing (a cost-recovery fee, not profit). Why? Geography. On a globe, the shortest route from the U.S. East Coast to Europe curves NORTH — over the Canadian Maritimes and Newfoundland. You cannot reroute the sky. Even the daily "highways in the sky" — the North Atlantic Tracks — are drawn each day by Canadian planners. Even th

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