good news: air canada adding new route again!
According to Pranjal Pranda from Simple Flying, Air Canada looks to be starting a new direct service from Montreal to New Delhi starting this Spring. While there is yet to be an official announcement from the carrier, travelers can now book this route on the Air Canada website.
Air Canada is planning to connect the largest city in Quebec to the Indian capital soon. The airline has begun listing a thrice-weekly service from New Delhi to Montreal starting from 18th April. When confirmed, this would mark Air Canada’s third direct route from India after Toronto and Vancouver.
The new service, listed as AC 50 and 51, will be flown using the trusted Boeing 787-9, which also flies other routes between India and Canada. The aircraft features a three-class layout with economy, premium economy, and business class. For futher details, please click here and read the full article on Simple Flying.
prime minister of canada: Tougher Travel Rules Likely Coming This Week
Although I just posted, that Air Canada is increasing their routes and opening new one to Cairo and Delhi, the Prime minister of Canada is doing the opposite. According to Jim Byers, from the canadian Travel Pulse, the Prime Minister Justin Trudeau took his “no travel” talk to a higher level today, urging Canadians to not only avoid travel to sun destinations but also within Canada.
He also said mandatory quarantines at hotels for people returning or coming to Canada – an idea floated this week by Quebec Premier Francois Legault – is an idea that’s under consideration and that tougher measures could be announced early next week.
Public Safety Minister Bill Blair went further after Trudeau’s talk, telling reporters that he’s concerned about “loopholes” that have allowed Canadians and Americans to fly freely between the two countries while land borders were closed to all but essential travel.
Foreign Affairs Minister Marc Garneau told CBC on Sunday that the Liberal government could invoke the federal Emergencies Act in a bid to limit travel. For further details, please click here and read the full article on Travel Pulse Canada.
U.S. President Biden: South Africa Travel Ban
According to Reuters, President Joe Biden will impose a ban on most non-U.S. citizens entering the country who have recently been in South Africa starting Saturday in a bid to contain the spread of a new variant of COVID-19, a senior U.S. public health official told Reuters.
Biden on Monday is also reimposing an entry ban on nearly all non-U.S. travelers who have been in Brazil, the United Kingdom, Ireland and 26 countries in Europe that allow travel across open borders.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director (CDC) head Rochelle Walensky will sign a separate order Monday requiring masks on all airplanes, ferries, trains, subways, buses, taxis, and ride-share vehicles for all travelers two and older, officials said. The new requirements are set to take effect in the coming days, they said, and masks can be removed for brief periods while eating or drinking.
For further details, please click here and read the full text.
Southwest Airlines adds to California New Routes
Southwest Airlines is adding five new routes to California from this April. The new flights to Santa Barbara and Fresno continue the airline’s expansion amid the crisis and extend the carrier’s growing hub-and-spoke network, which has become more prominent over the last year. This update was freshly posted by Jay Singh on Simple Flying.
In mid-December, Southwest Airlines announced it would add flights to two new cities in California: Fresno and Santa Barbara. The carrier has now revealed the initial flight routes out of these cities.
From Santa Barbara Airport (SBA), the carrier will be adding five daily roundtrip flights. One daily flight will operate to Denver, three daily flights will operate to Las Vegas, and one daily flight will be up to Oakland. For further details, please click and read the full article.
Air Belgium Suspends Caribbean Flights Until March
According to Jake Hardiman from Simple Flying, Charleroi-based scheduled and charter airline Air Belgium has decided to halt its Caribbean operations until March. The announcement comes shortly after the Belgian government banned international leisure travel to minimize the spread of coronavirus.
January 26th will represent the last date that its Brussels Charleroi – Pointe-à-Pitre – Fort-de-France – Brussels Charleroi will operate per its usual schedule. The travel ban comes into effect the following day, although the carrier will operate one final rotation of this triangular route at the end of the month.
This will see it combine departures on January 29th and 30th to operate a single Brussels – Pointe-à-Pitre – Fort-de-France – Brussels rotation on the former of these dates. In light of the leisure ban, the carrier also states that “passengers must be able to justify their travel for an essential reason.”
However, it plans to provisionally restart its full schedule on March 1st, depending on how the situation develops. Passengers with cancelled flights during the ban period can “postpone their trip free of charge to a later date and under the same conditions, or be reimbursed.” For further details, please click here.
the EUropean union proposes more travel restrictions
According to channel news asia, the European Union’s executive body proposed on Monday (Jan 25) that the bloc’s 27 nations impose more travel restrictions to counter the worrying spread of new coronavirus variants but make sure to keep goods and workers moving across EU borders.
Amid concerns related to the production and delivery of COVID-19 vaccines, the European commission urged EU nations to reinforce testing and quarantine measures for travelers as virus mutations that are more transmissible threaten to overwhelm European hospitals with new cases. More than 400,000 EU citizens have already died from the virus since the COVID-19 pandemic first hit Europe last year.
Among the new measures, which need to be approved by EU nations before taking effect, is the addition of a new “dark red” color to the EU’s weekly map of infections. For further details about the proposal, please click here and read the full text.
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