An influential international airline travel group has again called on the Canadian government to urgently discontinue its COVID-19 related travel restrictions. “These are now out of step with the global trend of lifting travel restrictions and are partly responsible for the ongoing delays and disruption affecting air travelers across Canada,” the International Air Transport Association (IATA) said in a statement. “Canada has become a total outlier in managing COVID-19 and travel,” said Peter Cerda, IATA’s Regional Vice President for the Americas. “Though governments across the globe are rolling back restrictions, the Government of Canada is reinstating them.” IATA says the Read more
Ottawa
The Trudeau government says the passport situation is improving, but there’s still work to do. “Canadians deserve access to timely, efficient, and transparent passport delivery services,” said Karina Gould, federal minister for Families, Children and Social Development. “We’re continuing to tackle big challenges in the passport program, and as the summer progresses, thanks to the hard work of Service Canada staff, we continue to see improvements in service delivery. “We are starting to put a dent in the backlog,” Gould said. “Last week, the number of passports issued was higher than at any point since before the pandemic, at 54,312. Read more
Mandatory Random Testing For Air Arrivals to Canada Resumes Next Week: Tourism Group Blasts Decision
Mandatory random testing of fully vaccinated travellers will resume next Tuesday, and Canadian tourism officials aren’t happy about it. Ottawa paused mandatory random testing for those entering Canada by air on June 11, 2022, as part of a broader strategy to transition testing for air travellers outside of the airports. Mandatory random testing will resume as of July 19, 2022, for travellers who qualify as fully vaccinated, arriving in Canada by air to the four major Canadian airports—Vancouver, Calgary, Montreal and Toronto. To qualify as a fully vaccinated traveller to Canada, travellers must have been vaccinated with a primary series Read more
Ottawa says it has hired some 1,200 security workers to deal with ongoing congestion problems at Canadian airports. The federal government on Wednesday July 6 issued the following statement: “On Monday, July 4, Minister Alghabra met with the CEO of Air Canada to discuss current and planned actions being taken by the airline to quickly bring on more employees and to bolster core operations to better respond to the challenges of rapidly increasing demands. This meeting followed similar meetings that Minister Alghabra had with the CEOs of the Greater Toronto Airports Authority and WestJet last week. Transport Canada is Read more
A group of Canadian travel and tourism experts are asking the Trudeau government to avoid bringing back random tests at Canadian airports. They also want to see the lifting of all remaining COVID-19 travel restrictions. “Three weeks ago, to aid the flow of passengers at ‘Canada’s airports, the federal government announced a pause on Mandatory Random Testing through to June 30, 2022,” the Canadian Travel and Tourism Roundtable said in a press release today. But that pause expires in only a few hours, and random testing will continue, albeit off-site. “Removing the entire testing process from airports will ease the Read more
