Canadian airlines, hoteliers and others in the tourism industry are urging Ottawa to eliminate the various taxes and fees charged on air travel, which they argue are raising fares and sending an increasing number of Canadians south of the border in search of cheaper flights.

The percentage of Canadians who said they travelled to a U.S. airport for a flight in 2010 rose to 21%, from 18% the year before, aided by the strong loonie and increased awareness of the cheaper fares in the United States, says a new survey conducted by the Hotel Association of Canada (HAC) that will be released Wednesday.

A further 11% of those 1,600 travellers surveyed said they may, for the first time, head to the United States for a flight in 2011.

HAC president Anthony Pollard said that could potentially see nearly 5 million Canadian passengers crossing the border in 2011 to airports in places like Buffalo and Plattsburgh, N.Y., Fargo, N.D., Bangor, Me., and Seattle, Wash., in search of a cheaper flight.

“To put it another way, it’s the same number of passengers that would go through a good-sized airport, like Halifax, annually,” he said. “The thing is, it keeps on growing.”

Both the Hotel Association and National Airlines Council of Canada (NACC) — which represents Air Canada, WestJet Airlines Ltd., Air Transat and Jazz — have argued for years that the burdensome taxes and fees charged here on air travel are making Canadian airports less competitive than their U.S. counterparts.

These fees range from fuel excise taxes to security charges and airport rent that eventually are passed on to consumers in the form of higher ticket prices.

For example, the lowest fare on an American Airlines round-trip flight between Toronto and New York City two weeks before departure is $400, $82.50 of which is for various taxes and fees.

By contrast, an AA flight on the same day from Buffalo to New York City costs $177 round-trip, only $21.40 of which is taxes and fees.

The NACC estimates that nearly $6.9-billion has been collected by the federal government over the past decade in the form of fees and taxes on the airlines, which often average between 20% and 25% of a ticket price. The eliminations of this burden could potentially lead to 2.7 million additional passengers a year flying with its members, and between $869-million and $3.3-billion in additional economic output, the industry group argues.

A lower number of competing carriers has also led to higher fares in Canada. But the hefty fees carry some of the blame there as well, acting as a deterrent for some low-cost carriers like JetBlue Airways. JetBlue was granted the right to fly to Canada in 2008, but has yet to launch any service here.

“JetBlue would like to serve Canada,” said Sebastian White, a spokesman for the low-cost carrier. “Toronto is known as one of the most expensive airports in the world. But, in general, the cost of operating at the country’s airports is higher than average.”