More options and the reluctance of Canadians to travel to the U.S. have helped drive a major increase in transatlantic passenger traffic out of Halifax Stanfield International Airport this summer, according to stakeholders.

Flights to Europe from Halifax are up 40 per cent for this summer over this time last year, according to data from aviation analytics company Cirium. That's significantly higher than the 1.8 per cent increase reflected for the rest of Canada and an eight per cent increase thr…