MONTREAL: Air Canada announced Tuesday the suspension of 17 US and international routes till the end of April and layoffs of 1,500 staff, citing a drop in demand for travel after a tightening of public health restrictions to gradual the spread of recent Covid-19 variants.
The cancellations to be phased in over the coming days will affect flights between Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver, Boston, New York, Seattle and Washington in addition to Bogota, Sao Paulo, Dublin, Dubai, Tel-Aviv, London, Hong Kong and Narita.
Canada’s flagship airline mentioned in a statement it’ll “also briefly reduce its unionized workforce by 1,500 staff and an as but undetermined number of managers.”
The decision is another blow to the staff of Air Canada, which has slashed more than half its workforce – or about 20,000 jobs – since the beginning of the pandemic, including 1,900 in January.
Three other Canadian airlines last month also suspended flights, at Ottawa’s behest, to sunbelt destinations within the Caribbean and Mexico to curb winter vacationing abroad.
This followed a recent tightening of public health restrictions on travel, together with requiring travelers to Canada to quarantine in hotels at their own expense for up to three days under strict supervision whereas they await the results of mandatory PCR testing for the coronavirus.
As of Tuesday, Canada reported 810,000 cases of Covid-19 illnesses and almost 21,000 deaths.
Local airlines have requested the government for a bailout, but Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has insisted travelers should be reimbursed for cancelled trips and all flights within Canada, the second-largest nation in the world by geography.
