Members of a House of Commons committee plan to meet Monday to discuss a request for a study of Canadian flight cancellations and airport delays. CTV News reports that members of the House of Commons Transport, Infrastructure and Communities Committee are scheduled to meet on Monday. “Throughout this the height of our travel season, the government has refused to listen to advocates, front-line workers and ordinary Canadians to make common-sense improvements to our country’s airports and scrap their continued measures leading to further delays,” said Conservative transport critic and committee vice-chair Melissa Lantsman, in an email to CTVNews.ca on Friday. Read more
Canada
The head of the Greater Toronto Airports Authority says things are gradually getting better in several key areas at Toronto Pearson. Deborah Flint, President and Chief Executive Officer of the GTAA, said today that Canada’s busiest airport is “seeing measurable improvements in flight delays, cancellations, baggage delivery and wait times. “The aviation system worldwide is facing a perfect storm as it strives to improve operations in the aftermath of COVID-19. But the industry is rebounding, and the metrics we are sharing today show how working with our partners is yielding results,” she said. While acknowledging the difficulties faced this summer, Read more
The Trudeau government says it’s continuing to work at easing crowding and other problems at Canadian airports, and that senior officials met with Toronto Pearson Airport management this week. It doesn’t appear to be helping, as cancellations and delays remain about what they were a week ago. FlightAware.com reports 33 flights were cancelled at Pearson on Wednesday, roughly 5% of all flights. Another 242 departing flights were delayed, about 40%. It wasn’t a lot better at Montreal Trudeau, where seven flights (2%) were cancelled and 123 flights (39%) were delayed. Here’s a statement they issued today: The Minister of Transport, Read more
In a move it hopes will modernize and expedite the travel experience at Canadian airports, the Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA) is now providing travellers the option to submit their customs and immigration declaration up to 72 hours in advance of their arrival in Canada through ArriveCAN. The Advance CBSA Declaration optional feature is currently available for international travellers arriving at Toronto Pearson, Montreal-Trudeau, and Vancouver international airports. In the coming months, the optional feature will also become available to travellers arriving at Winnipeg, Halifax, Calgary, Edmonton, Billy Bishop, Ottawa and Quebec City international airports. By submitting their customs and Read more
Canada’s restrictions on international travel drastically reduced the number of COVID-19 cases entering the country during the first waves of the pandemic but were insufficient to prevent new outbreaks, according to a new study led by University of British Columbia researchers. The study, published today in eLife, used publicly available viral genome sequences to create a detailed timeline of how the virus was entering Canada from January 2020 to March 2021, and the resulting chains of transmission. The genomic data was used to identify the geographic origin of COVID-19 cases, enabling the identification of 2,263 instances where COVID-19 was imported into Read more
