It seems Air Canada and New York airports are not a good combination. The FAA said Republic Airways Flight 4464, operating for American Airlines, performed a go-around at John F. Kennedy International Airport after missing its intended approach path and flying too close to Jazz Aviation Flight 554, which was operating for Air Canada and had already been cleared to land on a parallel runway.
The event occurred Monday, April 20, at about 2:30 p.m. local time as the two regional jets approached JFK from different origins. Republic Flight 4464 was arriving from Indianapolis, while Jazz Flight 554 was arriving from Toronto. Both aircraft later landed safely, but only after executing aborted landings.
It was reported the the aircraft came within 350 feet vertically and 0.62 miles horizontally. Both flight crews received onboard resolution advisories, the cockpit collision-avoidance warnings that instruct pilots to climb or descend to restore separation.
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Air traffic control audio captured the urgency. A controller instructed Jazz 554 to “climb and maintain 3,000,” and the crew replied, “Climb and maintain 3,000, Jazz 554,” before reporting “TCAS RA,” indicating the aircraft’s traffic collision avoidance system had issued a resolution advisory. The FAA said both crews responded to onboard alerts.
The market angle is not about immediate operations disruption so much as renewed reputational risk for Air Canada. The carrier was already dealing with the fallout from a fatal March 22 accident at New York’s LaGuardia Airport involving Air Canada Express Flight 8646, a CRJ-900 operated by regional partner Jazz Aviation, which struck an airport fire truck after landing on Runway 4. Two pilots were killed in that crash while 41 people were injured.
That LaGuardia crash was not a minor event. Reuters reported 41 people were injured, while a later update said 39 passengers and crew were taken to hospital and six remained hospitalized as of March 24. The NTSB said the fire truck lacked a transponder and that the airport’s ground surveillance system did not generate an alert warning of the vehicle’s proximity to the runway.
The incident indirectly led to Air Canada CEO Michael Rousseau retiring by the end of Q3 2026, also following a public rebuke on his apology that did not include French language.
Air Canada said it is temporarily suspending flights from Toronto and Montreal to New York’s JFK International Airport, citing higher fuel costs.
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