The U.S. on Wednesday announced new COVID-19 testing requirements for all travelers from China. But Canada has yet to follow suit.
Starting January 5, all travelers to the U.S. from China, Macau and Hong Kong will need to take a COVID-19 test no more than two days before travel and provide a negative test before boarding their flight. The testing applies to anyone two years and older, the CBC reports.
Other countries made the move before the U.S., but Canada has yet to take similar action. A spokesperson for Transport Minister Omar Alghabra, said Canada is monitoring COVID-19 case numbers and following the advice of public health officials, the CBC stated.
TRUDEAU GOVERNMENT BLASTS SUNWING STRANDING OF PASSENGERS
It is “unacceptable” that hundreds of Canadian passengers remain stuck in Mexico after Sunwing cancelled their flights home — and the federal government is “concerned,” Transport Minister Omar Alghabra says.
Global News reports his comments come after Canadians described being shuffled between hotels in Mexico, sometimes arriving to find there were no rooms booked for them, saying Sunwing officials have so far passed along inaccurate and incomplete information about when they might be able to head home.
Stuck in Puerto Vallarta after their Sunwing Airlines flight back to B.C. was cancelled, Dennis Mousseau told the Vancouver Sun that his nine-year-old son, Gus, has been crying himself to sleep, not knowing when he will be home.
Len Corrado, President of Sunwing Airlines, said on the company website yesterday (Dec. 28) that he understands the frustration customers are feeling.
“We know this past week has been frustrating for many of our customers as we continue to navigate unprecedented operational challenges, resulting in a number of ongoing flight delays. We deeply apologize for the impact to our customers’ travel plans over the holiday season, and in particular for our customers delayed in destination seeking an update on their rescheduled return flights,” Corrado said.
“Our teams locally and in destination continue to proactively work through the backlog of flights in order to return our customers home as soon as possible. We have 40 recovery flights planned for this week thus far, 18 of which have already operated or will be complete by end of day today.
“For our customers awaiting updated flight times, information on rescheduled flights will be communicated as they are confirmed, through flight alert notifications and through destination representatives. Pease know that we continue to work around the clock to overcome operational challenges and return our remaining delayed customers home in the next few days.”
SOUTHWEST SNAFU NOT SLOWING DOWN
The Southwest Meltdown continues with hundreds more flights cancelled due to what appears to be computer/network issues.
FlightAware is already reporting 2,363 Southwest flight cancellations for today as of 7:30 a.m. Pacific Time, which represents 58% of flights. For Wednesday, the website reported 2,510 cancellations, or 61% of flights.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said federal authorities will take action.
“Just as we’ve used our regulatory and enforcement tools to secure over $622,000,000 in refunds to hundreds of thousands of US air passengers this year alone, USDOT (the U.S. Department of Transportation) will continue acting to ensure Southwest passengers get the refunds and expense reimbursements they are owed,” he wrote on his Twitter feed (@SecretaryPete).
“Southwest’s flight delays & cancellations are beyond unacceptable,” Senator and former U.S. presidential candidate Bernie Sanders said on Twitter (@SenSanders). “This is a company that got a $7 billion taxpayer bailout & will be handing out $428 million in dividends to their wealthy shareholders. @USDOT must hold Southwest’s CEO accountable for his greed and incompetence.”
