January 2022

In yet another blow for Canadians wishing to travel, and for the Canadian travel industry, Canada has been removed from the European Union’s Safe Travel list. The EU regularly updates its list of countries that are safe for travel into Europe. Their latest update, which took place on Monday, Feb. 17, removed Canada from that list, as well as Argentina and Australia. “Following a review under the recommendation on the gradual lifting of the temporary restrictions on non-essential travel into the EU, the Council updated the list of countries, special administrative regions and other entities and territorial authorities for which Read more

Americans are planning more trips now than at any time in since the start of the pandemic, a new study says. A report from Destination Analysts finds that nearly 80% of American travelers have trips currently planned in 2022. The average number of anticipated leisure trips Americans plan to take over the next 12 months has hit its highest peak during the pandemic era at 3.1. Their January study also finds that 72.8% of Americans expressed higher levels of excitement for their prospective travel future; the highest level it’s been since the Omicron wave began. More than 70% have engaged Read more

A major winter storm and the biggest snowfall in some time is wreaking havoc with air travel in Eastern Canada and the Northeast United States today. Toronto Pearson stats show that, as of 5 p.m. Eastern Time, 75.98% of the 333 scheduled departures had been cancelled, while 72.83% of 346 arrivals were cancelled. Toronto was hit with nearly two feet of snow Sunday night and into Monday afternoon, and heavy winds were making things that much tougher Monday afternoon. FlightAware.com was showing that 48% of flights were cancelled at Ottawa’s international airport as of 5 p.m., while Montreal-Trudeau was at Read more

Chief Medical Officers of Health for Air Canada, Toronto Pearson, and WestJet are calling on Canadian governments to shift PCR testing from airports to communities. In a letter to Canadian Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos and senior health officials in the federal and Ontario governments, the health officers said tests are needed at the community level and not for travellers. “Over the last two months, Omicron has quickly become the predominant variant of COVID-19. As it spreads throughout our communities, we need to ensure Canada’s limited testing resources are being used where Canadians need them most—to support our communities, schools, hospitals Read more