The Canadian government has “intercepted and interrogated” some 27 of 130 passengers on board the now infamous Sunwing party flight from Montreal to Mexico. Speaking at a news conference today in Ottawa, Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos said authorities are continuing their investigation and that the government of Quebec is looking at “penal and criminal issues” surrounding the flight. “Transport Canada rules were broken,” he said. Video footage surfaced this week showing influencers and Quebec reality TV actors partying on a flight from Montreal to Cancun on December 30. A bottle of vodka appeared at one point, and passengers were dancing Read more

Airline staffing issues and weather problems continue to bedevil would-be travellers in Canada and the U.S. New York City and Boston have been hardest hit today. As of 3:45 p.m. Eastern Time on Friday, January 7, the website flightaware.com reports 328 cancellations for Canadian airlines for the day. It also said nearly one-half of all flights for snowy Halifax, Nova Scotia have been cancelled today. According to the site, Air Canada Jazz alone has cancelled 150 flights, which represents 30% of their total for the day. WestJet Encore has cancelled 59 flights, or 31%, the site said. For Air Canada, Read more

An influential Canadian tourism group is urging Ottawa to loosen testing restrictions and allow arriving passengers to get rapid COVID-19 tests. The Canadian government currently requires arriving passengers to provide a negative result from a PCR-style COVID test taken within 72 hours of their scheduled departure. But those tests are expensive, and results in some cases are taking longer than 72 hours to be reported. And that makes travel difficult. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson this week said it will no longer require re-departure tests for people travelling to Great Britain. The Guardian reports that Johnson said the Omicron variant Read more

Canadians will soon be able to visit Israel again. At midnight January 9th, Israel is reopening to tourists and other visitors from Orange designated countries, including Canada. “Fully vaccinated people coming to Israel from a country on the ORANGE list must go into 24-hour isolation or isolate until they receive negative PCR or Rapid Test results, which must be taken at Ben Gurion International Airport, whichever is earlier. Testing is done at upon arrival, just following luggage claim, before exiting the terminal,” officials said. Referring to the abolition of isolation for vaccinated people returning from abroad and the return of Read more

Tourism Ireland welcomes news about the lifting of additional pre-testing requirement for travel to the island of Ireland. For visitors arriving into the Republic of Ireland from today (January 6) onward, vaccinated people with a valid Digital Covid Certificate or another valid proof of recent infection or vaccination will not need a test. Unvaccinated people will need a “not detected” PCR test result taken within 72 hours of their arrival into Ireland. These new regulations are effective immediately for the Republic of Ireland: • Vaccinated or recovered travellers into Ireland will be required to present evidence of a valid Digital Read more

The Omicron variant is wreaking havoc with Canadian airlines. A day after Air Canada Vacations said it was trimming flights and packages to a dozen or so sun destinations, Transat A.T. said it’s slashing its winter routes by 30%, and Porter Airlines said they’ll likely have to make cuts of their own. A Canadian Press story on the Global News site today said Transat blamed “the ongoing impact of the Omicron variant and the federal government’s Dec. 15 recommendation against non-essential travel abroad have triggered a wave of trip cancellations.” The cuts are due to stay in place until February Read more