Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced on Friday that his government had asked Air Canada, Westjet, Air Transat, and Sunwing to suspend all flights to sun destinations in the Caribbean and Mexico starting Sunday until the end of April 2021 at the earliest. Trudeau said that in agreeing to cancel services for the next few months, Canada’s “air carriers are stepping up to protect Canadians”.
“I would like to acknowledge the leadership of Air Canada, Westjet, Air Transat, and Sunwing in making this commitment to suspend services and being such strong partners in the fight to curb the spread of COVID-19 and its variants,” Trudeau said during a press conference in Ottawa.
In addition, the Canadian government outlined strict new rules to further reduce the risk of dangerous new variants of the COVID-19 virus being imported into Canada from abroad. These measures include:
- International flights will only be allowed to land at four designated airports: Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto and Montreal
- Mandatory polymerase chain reaction PCR testing on arrival
- Hotel quarantine for up to three days while test results are processed
- Self-isolation at home with strict new enforcement
- New proof of COVID-19 test requirements at the Canada / USA border
Passengers who test positive for COVID-19 on arrival will be moved into “government approved” accommodation while genomic sequencing is carried out to ensure the passenger isn’t infected with a new variant of the novel Coronavirus.
Of particular concern is the South African variant (known officially as B. 1.351) which has led to a surge in cases in South Africa and is now known to lessen the efficacy of several vaccines including candidates from Novavax and Moderna. Highly transmissible variants have also been detected in the UK and Brazil.
Hotel quarantine will be at the expense of the traveller. Trudeau said he expected it to cost around CAD$2,000 per person.
Trudeau has repeatedly told Canadian’s that “now is not the time to travel” as Canada fights a deadly second wave of COVID-19 infections and a mass vaccination programme gets underway. During Friday’s press conference, the Prime Minister said he was “looking forward” to the time that travel could restart and that his government would be working with the industry on science-led testing and quarantine rules.
Trudeau could not, however, say when he expected non-essential travel would again be allowed, only going so far as to say that he “hoped” it would be at some point in 2021.
Despite the Prime Minister’s pleas for Canadian’s to stay at home, so-called ‘snowbirds’ – retired Canadians who travel to Florida, Mexico and the Caribbean during the harsh winter at home – have refused to put their travel plans on hold.
Thousands of snowbirds have left Canada in the last few months and now Canadian airlines will have to work to repatriate them while normal scheduled flights are suspended.
