Westjet CEO calls for reduced air travel restrictions
Posted June 2, 2022 1:46 pm.
WestJet’s CEO is calling on Canada to scale back pandemic restrictions on air travel, days after the federal government announced it was extending current border measures for at least another month for travellers arriving in this country.
Alexis von Hoensbroech tweeted a photo of himself maskless on a flight travelling within Europe on May 30. In another post a day later, he criticized the federal government’s vaccine mandate for air travellers.
https://twitter.com/AHoensbroech/status/1531514864417513472
“Vaccine mandate for air travellers and employees needs to be dropped. As vaccines are not preventing the spreading of the virus since #omicron, there is no more logic to maintain it. This will also relax some of the operational challenges at the airports,” Hoensbroech said in a tweet.
Canada’s current rules for air travellers on any domestic or international flight departing from most Canadian airports include wearing a mask.
The government says “all flight passengers must wear a mask throughout their entire travel journey except while eating, drinking, or taking oral medication, or unless otherwise exempt.”
Due to the extension of travel measures, people arriving in Canada, regardless of their COVID-19 vaccination status, will continue to be required to submit information in the ArriveCAN app before getting to the Canadian border.
Several other pandemic restrictions remain in place at Canadian airports and land borders, including vaccine mandates and random COVID-19 tests.
Canada previously dropped its pre-entry COVID-19 test requirement for fully vaccinated travellers entering the country. Foreign nationals who are not fully vaccinated still cannot travel to Canada, with the exception of some special exemptions.
Related article: Feds extend border measures for travellers entering Canada through June
The extension comes amid lengthy delays at several major airports in Canada.
The Canadian Airports Council has blamed customs delays partly on the pandemic measures still in place at airports, but Transport Minister Omar Alghabra contends that is not the fully story.
“Public health measures may be part of the reason why we have slowness at the airports,” he says. “There are other jurisdictions that have volume issues that do not have any public health measures.”
He says some European airports free of health measures are experiencing similar delays.
–With files from Michael Ranger
