Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Friday announced the suspension of all flights to the Caribbean for the next three months, as his government seeks to keep COVID-19 variants out of the country.
The restrictions go into effect on Sunday.
“New variants of COVID-19 pose a real challenge to Canada. That’s why we need to take extra measures,” Trudeau said at his daily press conference as he announced that Air Canada, WestJet, Sunwing and Air Transat had all agreed to suspend their flights to the Caribbean until April 30.
The airlines will be making arrangements with customers currently travelling in the affected countries to organize their return flights.
The move comes on the heels of the prime minister urging Canadians earlier this month not to leave the country on non-essential travel, just in case new restrictions are imposed.
Air Canada said it plans to operate a number of one-way commercial flights from affected destinations after January 31 to bring customers back to Canada. The company said in a press release that customers impacted by the new rules “will be offered full refunds given the services are being suspended with no alternative available.”
WestJet said it was working to bring its guests already vacationing back to Canada over the next two weeks and would be notifying those booked to travel during the impacted period of their options. Air Transat also said it was working on a repatriation plan for all its customers and would announce details shortly.
“We appreciate the work the Canadian airlines and their front line workers have done to make air travel safer and to bring Canadians home when this pandemic struck last spring,” Trudeau said.
“With the challenges we currently face with COVID-19 both here at home and abroad, we all agree that now is just not the time to be flying.”
In addition to suspending flights from the Caribbean and Mexico, Trudeau said travellers to Canada will only be able to land at airports in Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto and Montreal, and they will be mandated to take a COVID-19 PCR test at those airports.
“In addition to the pre-boarding test we already require, as soon as possible in the coming weeks we will be introducing mandatory PCR testing at the airport for people returning to Canada. Travellers will then have to wait for up to three days at an approved hotel, for their test results, at their own expense, which is expected to be more than CAN$2,000 (US$1,560),” Trudeau said in his daily media conference.
Those who test negative will be able to complete the remainder of the mandatory 14-day quarantine period at home, but those with positive tests will be immediately required to quarantine in designated government facilities to make sure they’re not carrying variants of potential concern, Prime Minister Trudeau said.
CMC
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