Ottawa — Industry groups are calling on Ottawa to take the lead of the United Kingdom and help implement a plan to reopen Canada’s aviation sector.
Mike McEnany, president and chief executive officer of the National Aviation Council of Canada, said the UK has announced that it will allow round-trip travel to the list of selected countries starting May 17.
He says travelers from these destinations do not need to be quarantined when entering the UK
McEnany said the first list of countries released on Friday will grow over time as public health conditions improve.
He says it’s time for the federal government to work with the Canadian industry to develop a similar plan.
The travel restrictions introduced at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic were devastating to the aviation sector as passenger numbers and profits plummeted and tens of thousands of workers lost their jobs.
“In the midst of the February pandemic, the UK Government recognized the important need to plan a final safe resumption of international travel and began working with the aviation sector to develop a resumption process.” McEnany said on Friday in the release.
“On behalf of the hundreds of thousands of Canadians who lost their jobs in the aviation and travel sector, and the large number of communities that lost their services, the federal government immediately worked with the industry to plan a reboot, following the UK example. I will. “
McEnany said Canada’s aviation sector has called on the federal government for months to develop a secure resumption strategy that outlines the rules that must be met in order to begin addressing borders and travel restrictions.
He said the strategy was to help Canada deal with vaccinated and unvaccinated passengers, coordinate quarantine and inspection measures, and facilitate overseas travel. He said he needed to use a science-based approach to set how to ensure proper electronic capture of health data.
McEnany said last month before the new federal budget was submitted, Congress hopes to avoid a mandatory vaccine passport, although the budget includes a secure aviation resumption strategy that includes testing and contract tracking. It was.
The council represents major domestic and international passenger airlines such as Air Canada, Air Transat, Jazz Airlines LP and WestJet.