Trade organizations urge roadmap for restart of transborder US-Canada air travel
OTTAWA, Ontario - U.S. and Canadian airlines are pushing the Canadian government to work on reopening cross-border air travel. In a joint letter Friday, Airlines for America and the National Airlines Council of Canada should “swiftly lay out a clear plan for the safe restart of transborder air travel” based on recommendations made by Canadian health authorities that called for the elimination of quarantine requirements for fully vaccinated travelers and reduced quarantine requirements for partially vaccinated and unvaccinated travelers, Sam Mintz reports for Politico. Continue reading original article.
The Intelligent Aerospace take:
June 10, 2021 -The National Airlines Council of Canada and Airlines for America penned a joint letter to Canada's Minister of Transport Omar Alghabra to work to make a plan to re-open transborder air travel between the United States and Canada.
"As vaccination rates increase exponentially in both countries, and provincial governments release their restart plans, now is the time for the federal government to engage immediately with airlines to deliver a clear roadmap and timeline to reopen the air border," the organizations wrote. "We believe this work should be completed and announced before June 21, when the existing Canadian border measures are set to potentially be renewed.
"Safely reopening transborder air travel between Canada and the U.S. is essential for both nation’s economic recovery from the pandemic," the organizations continued. "Canada and the U.S. have one of the largest and most comprehensive investment relationships in the world. Air travel is a critical enabler of trade between our countries that was worth $718 billion USD in 2019, including the transport of 408,000 tons of high value-added freight and mail (1,117 tons per day). In 2019, U.S. foreign direct investment in Canada totaled a record 402 billion USD (nearly 47 percent of total foreign investment in Canada) and Canada’s foreign direct investment in the U.S. was 496 billion USD."
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Jamie Whitney, Associate Editor
Intelligent Aerospace