Air Canada is suspending 14 of its Caribbean routes, including to Grand Cayman, until at least the end of April, in light of a surge in COVID-19 cases and associated government regulations in the region, the airline has announced.
The suspension of routes begins on 24 Jan., Air Canada stated in a travel advisory on its website on Wednesday, 5 Jan. The airline also confirmed to the Cayman Compass in an email on Wednesday that the flights were being suspended.
As well as Grand Cayman, the suspended destinations include: Antigua; Aruba; Curaçao; Exuma in the Bahamas; Grenada; Puerto Plata, Santo Domingo and Samaná in the Dominican Republic; Bermuda; Havana in Cuba; Saint Vincent and the Grenadines; Saint Martin/Sint Maarten; and Saint Kitts and Nevis.
Air Canada on 3 Jan., in social media posts, had denied other media reports of cancellations of flights to the Caribbean and Mexico, saying that those reports were based on a press release from 2021. Two days later, Air Canada Vacations issued a travel advisory and its vice-president informed travel agents and other partners of the suspension of the flights from 24 Jan. this year.
Air Canada resumed flights to the Cayman Islands early last month, and recently has been operating two flights a week between Grand Cayman and Toronto on its Air Canada Rouge service.
The airline said that, in order to ensure Canadians are not stranded abroad, it plans to operate a number of one-way commercial flights from the impacted destinations.
Travellers affected by the suspension of the flights will be given a full refund, Air Canada stated, adding that its team “will be contacting any impacted customers and processing refunds in order of departure date. Eligible customers will receive an invoice as confirmation of their refund once it has been issued.”
According to a report in TravelPress.com, Air Canada Vacations vice-president Nino Montagnese, in a message to partners, said, “As we continue the winter season, a resurgence of COVID and new government regulations have reduced demand in some Sun destinations, leading to unavoidable disruptions to Air Canada’s flight schedule from Jan. 24 to April 30, 2022.”
He said the changes will only impact 7% of Air Canada Vacations customers, and “we’ve maintained operations to 23 Sun destinations throughout the winter season”.
Another Canadian airline, WestJet, is currently flying once a week, on Thursdays, between Toronto and Grand Cayman. According to its online reservations page, it will start flying twice a week, on Sundays and Thursdays, from 20 Feb.
The Cayman Islands Ministry of Tourism and Transport, in a statement issued on Thursday, 6 Jan., said Cayman would continue to welcome Canadians wishing to travel here on WestJet, and described Air Canada’s pause of its route as an “unexpected change” to its winter service.
Tourism Minister Kenneth Bryan said in the statement, “We look forward to continuing to welcome Canadian travellers through alternative routes and airlines serving Grand Cayman.”
The statement added that the Cayman Islands government would “work closely with all partners in the Cayman Islands and abroad to ensure a safe experience for all and will remain in contact with international airlines in scheduling flights and keeping abreast of travel entry requirements”.
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This is bad for us. Our government should be rolling out the red carpet and making it a priority that the planes with money be coming to us: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0cAtvkjWRQU
The consequences of not fully opening to families with young children being shown right here. Another win for the progressive, pragmatic, and reasonable Covid policy decisions made by Turks & Caicos etc.
Thank you for including in your article the TravelPress quote, which gives a good indication of an unsaid reason for them suspending these routes.
Who can blame the airlines at this point? With absolutely no guidance from the Cayman government as to when children not able to be vaccinated will be allowed in. Everyone is left in a lurch. This government needs to make some decisions and announcements soon so the rest of the world can make plans. They were considering opening for kids in December. Can we get an update on that? Someone needs to press this government for answers and dates. This is ridiculous at this point.
Tourism Minister Bryan described Air Canada’s pause of its route as an “unexpected change” to its winter service.
This comment once again shows how clueless the Premier and his Cabinet have been to the consequences of their haphazard, confusing changing of tourism regulations and their obvious effect it would have on the airline industry.
How did they think that potential tourists and the airline industry would respond to all of these rules about 24-hour cultures and then repeat cultures threatening 2 weeks of quarantine? Tourists are either canceling reservations – plane and room – or just deciding to make other vacation plans. Why would a tourist fight to find a flight to Cayman and then risk spending his vacation in his room just because some Caymanian at a restaurant or grocery store coughed on him and infected him with Covid?
Please lay off of the Caymanian government officials and let them do what they feel is right for their people. Kudos to them for trying to protect their island!!!
As everyone posting loves to point out there are plenty of other islands to visit so just go there and leave Cayman to deal with their issues as they feel necessary!!!