The US is the obvious market, right next door. If there was any appetite there for allowing cabotage, then you would see cruise ships lining up in Seattle this summer, headed on the Alaska cruise. It's not happening. Without the ability to make the stop in Canada, the Alaska bound cruise ships out of Seattle are not running this upcoming summer. Not leaving out of Vancouver, and not leaving out of Seattle. It's a significant hit to the economy in BC, and a much much larger hit to that in Alaska.
https://nationalpost.com/opinion/colby- ... icas-fault
USA is quite prepared to let the economy of Alaska crumble to protect the cabotage laws. If they wont make the exception for Alaska bound cruise ships when Canadian ports are closed to those boats, they sure aren't going to make an exception for Air Canada flights going JFK->LAX.
If there was any appetite for airline cabotage, it would have been included in a revised nafta recently done.
You need to go back and re-read that conservative platform document. They want to buy votes by promising cheaper air fares with 'experiments' in cabotage within Canada, but there will be no reciprocity involved.