Canada to ban flights from Caribbean and Mexico

 

Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced on Friday airlines including Air Canada, Sunwing, WestJet and Air Transat have agreed to suspend service.

The Prime Minister said starting next week, all international flights will be allowed to land only in Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto and Montreal.

The airlines will contact persons currently on vacation in the Caribbean and Mexico to organize return flights ahead of the deadline.

 

Mr. Trudeau also announced passengers will have to take a PCR test after arriving in Canada.

 

"Travellers will then have to wait for up to three days at an approved hotel for their test results at their own expense, which is expected to be more than $2000. Those with negative test results will then be able to quarantine at home with significantly increased surveillance and enforcement."

 

Persons who test positive will have to quarantine in government facilities "to ensure they're not carrying variants of potential concern".

 

The stricter restrictions on travellers follow new, likely more contagious variants of COVID-19. 

 

Negative effect on Jamaica's tourism sector

Senior Advisor in the Ministry of Tourism Delano Seiveright says the suspension of flights from Canada to the Caribbean will further affect Jamaica's tourism sector which has been hard hit by the Covid-19 pandemic.

"The Canadian market really is the second largest market for tourists to Jamaica...give or take 15 per cent of our visitors. But with COVID everything has really gone down by 70 [or] 80 per cent...there are some hotels in Jamaica that have a big slice of the Canadian business and they no doubt will be severely impacted by this development," Mr. Seiveright said.

Earlier in January, the government in Ottawa said all passengers age five and over who want to visit Canada must present a negative PCR COVID-19 test before they fly.