Press Release: The federal government’s announcement of help for small and medium-sized buisnesses was hailed by tourism officials as a great step forward. The Canadian government is helping small to medium-sized businesses by covering 75% of wages for qualifying companies during the COVID-19 crisis, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Friday. The move was quickly hailed by the Tourism Industry Association of Ontario. Later in the day, Finance Minister Bill Morneau said more details of government aid for industries hit…
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WestJet cutting 6,900 jobs
Press Release WestJet on March 24 announced that 6,900 employees will be leaving the organization, with 90 per cent of those leaving voluntarily. The airline had approximately 14,000 employees before this announcement. WestJet’s low-cost airline subsidiary Swoop had 269 employees impacted through voluntary and involuntary means. The Calgary-based company recently suspended its commercial operations for all transborder (United States, including Hawaii) and international (Europe, Mexico, Caribbean, Central America) flights, as of March 22 for a 30-day period. “Today, 6,900 WestJetters…
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COVID-19 – Impact is being felt at YQB
Press Release QUÉBEC CITY, March 27, 2020 /CNW Telbec/ – Over the past two weeks, Québec City Jean Lesage International Airport (YQB) has deployed extraordinary measures in response to the global pandemic that is hitting the air transport industry particularly hard. “While the situation is changing from day to day, and even from hour to hour, our role and our priorities have not changed: to help our passengers, from here and abroad, get home safely,” stated Stéphane Poirier, President and CEO of YQB.…
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Swoop Suspends All International Flights, Commits to Bringing Home 2,349 Canadian Travellers
Press Release CALGARY, March 19, 2020 /CNW/ – Swoop is altering its international operations to help with the global efforts to combat the spread of COVID-19. At the end of the operating day on Sunday, March 22, Swoop is suspending all international and transborder flights and will begin its efforts to bring home the 2,349 Swoop travellers who are currently outside of Canada. This suspension will be in place until May 31, 2020. “These are extraordinary times, and we want to be sure our Swoop…
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Transat confirms the temporary layoff of 70% of its staff – Repatriation operations to end April 1
Press Release MONTREAL, March 23, 2020 /CNW Telbec/ – Transat A.T. Inc. announces that it has temporarily laid off about 70% of its workforce in Canada. The final Air Transat flight prior to the full suspension of its operations is scheduled for April 1. On March 18, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, Transat announced the gradual temporary halting of all its flights until April 30. Operations are being stopped gradually in order to enable Transat to repatriate as many of its customers as possible to…
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Sudbury closing public facilities and suspending programs to limit virus spread
SUDBURY — The City of Greater Sudbury and Public Health Sudbury and Districts held a joint news conference late Monday afternoon to provide a COVID-19 update. Mayor Brian Bigger, joined by Sudbury & Districts Medical Officer of Health, Dr. Penny Sutcliffe, Chief Administrative Officer Ed Archer and Chief of Fire and Paramedic Services General Manager Joseph Nicholls delivered the news via live-stream. Nicholls opened the news conference by thanking Sudbury first responders. Dr. Penny Sutcliffe spoke next to provide an overview…
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Westjet suspending international and transborder flights for 30 days
WestJet says it is suspending all commercial international and transborder flights for a 30-day period to help control the spread of COVID-19, effective March 23. The Calgary-based airline says it will be operating rescue and repatriation flights in partnership with the Canadian government. The company’s CEO made the announcement on the airline’s website late Monday night. In addition to stopping the international flights, they will be reducing their domestic schedule by approximately 50 per cent, Sims said. Source: Toronto CityNews
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Air Canada, Air Transat, Sunwing have updated information in wake of advisory
TORONTO — It was a gruelling weekend for travel agents and suppliers. A number of airlines and tour operators have updates in the wake of the federal government’s global travel advisory, announced Friday, warning Canadians to avoid all non-essential travel outside of Canada, a warning that set off an unprecedented wave of rebookings and cancellations. Sunwing notes that the federal government has given assurances that flights arriving back to Canada from sun destinations including those in the Caribbean and Mexico…
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Air Canada Suspends Italy Service Until May 1
Following changes in Italian government regulations that pretty much lock down the country – as well as ongoing health and safety concerns – Air Canada has suspended service between Canada and Italy 11. A spokesperson for Air Canada told PressToday that, “Our last flight to Rome will depart Toronto on the evening of March 10 and the last flight returning from Rome will be March 11 to Montreal. We continue to monitor this situation and evaluate conditions prior to resuming…
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Sunwing focuses on repatriation with 100K passengers in destination
TORONTO — Sunwing is letting passengers and agents know that all southbound flights March 17 – April 9 are cancelled and that it is shifting its focus to repatriation flights as it works to bring Canadians home amid the coronavirus pandemic. Sunwing currently has some 100,000 passengers in destination. The first four rescue flights, three from Toronto and one from Montreal, flew home 500+ Canadians from vacation destinations in Honduras, Aruba, Panama and St. Maarten yesterday. All of these countries…
