After more than two and-a-half years of strict COVID-19 controls, the government of Hong Kong says it’s putting an end to mandatory quarantine rules for international travellers. CNN reports that under rules that come into play on Monday, September 26, incoming travellers will be required to undergo three days of self-monitoring on arrival. Travellers will not be allowed to visit certain places during that period, including restaurants and bars. They’ll also have to take PCR tests on days, two, four and six after arriving, followed by another rapid antigen test. It’s still a fair bit of control, but it’s a Read more
Air Transat
Montreal-based Air Transat said it posted its first profitable month in two years this summer, and that it expects to match pre-pandemic traffic levels this coming winter. Transat A.T. today (September 8) released its third quarter financial results. The airline and travel company posted revenues of $4508.3 million and reported an adjusted operating loss of $57.8 million. “The recovery emerging at the end of the last quarter has been confirmed in recent months. With our prudent planning and our teams’ exceptionally high quality execution, we were able to deploy virtually all of our programs, with continuously improving load factors,” said Read more
American lawmakers and business officials are ratcheting up the pressure on the Trudeau government Ottawa to get rid of the controversial ArriveCan app. Nearly 1,500 emails have been sent to federal MPs and Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino since the Canadian American Business Council’s new campaign, “Travel Like it’s 2019,” went live two weeks ago, The Canadian Press reports. The online campaign calls on Ottawa to scrap the troublesome ArriveCan app, a mandatory pre-screening tool for visitors to Canada, and to tackle the backlog plaguing the Canada-U.S. trusted-traveller system known as Nexus. Critics have blasted ArriveCan for causing airport congestion Read more
Air Transat is getting a $150 million assistance package from the Trudeau government. Transat A.T. Inc. announced today that it has reached an agreement with Canada Enterprise Emergency Funding Corporation (“CEEFC”), a federal Crown corporation, to obtain $100 million in added financing, as well as $50 million in credit. “In this final LEEFF (Large Employer Emergency Financing Facility) loan, Transat will receive up to $150 million to protect Canadian jobs and ensure operations can continue, despite the company’s ongoing capital operating challenges as a result of the pandemic,” the government said in a press released. “The amount consists of $100 Read more
Canada’s airlines don’t appear to be following Air Canada’s lead on July and August flight cancellations. Spokepersons for both Air Transat and Porter Airlines told me today that they’re not looking to trim summer flights. WestJet put out a statement around 1 p.m. Eastern Time saying it has already trimmed back its schedule by roughly 20%. “We have been meticulously planning for summer operations and over the past few months have proactively reduced capacity to ensure we can deliver a stable operation,” WestJet officials said. “We have been very measured in our approach, and are currently scheduled to operate Read more
