Air Canada Is Suspending Some Flights To Sun Destinations Until At Least April 2022
This includes multiple destinations in the Caribbean.✈️❌
Air Canada has confirmed that it will suspend some flights to popular sun destinations —including places in Caribbean — until at least April 2022.
In a statement shared on January 5, the Canadian airline confirmed that "in light of the current pandemic context" their winter flight schedule would be reduced.
The affected routes listed include Antigua, Aruba, Samaná, Curaçao, Exuma, Grenada, Puerto Plata, Santo Domingo, Bermuda and Grand Cayman, as well as Havana, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Saint Martin/Sint Maarten, and Saint Kitts and Nevis.
Flights will be suspended from January 24, 2022, until April 30, 2022.
"To help ensure that Canadians are not stranded abroad, Air Canada plans to operate a number of one-way commercial flights from affected destinations in order to return customers at the suspended destinations to Canada," the company confirmed on Wednesday.
Customers impacted by the temporary suspension of these flights will be notified by the airline and will receive a full refund, Air Canada has confirmed.
Passengers will be contacted "in order of departure date," so hang tight if you haven't heard anything from the airline just yet.
The update comes just days after the air carrier was forced to reassure customers that flights to destinations in the Caribbean and Mexico were not being cancelled, due to confusion over a date mixup from 2021.
While original reports were corrected by Air Canada, it has since been announced that some routes will be temporarily suspended.
It's not the only airline to cite COVID-19 and pandemic-related complications as a reason for slashing winter 2022 flights, either.
Recently, WestJet announced that it would be cutting around 15% of its scheduled flights through January due to staff sickness, per Global News.
Similarly, Transat A.T. cancelled almost 30% of its flights for the next two months due to the impact of the Omicron variant and the government's "restrictive measures.”
The federal government's latest non-essential travel advisory remains in effect, which urges Canadians to avoid all discretionary trips outside of Canada due to risks like getting stranded abroad.