Air Canada has suspended flights to St Vincent and three other Caribbean islands until October 29 2022.
Earlier this year, Air Canada said that it was temporarily suspending flights to Mexican and Caribbean destinations for 90 days, as of January 31. That period was expected to end on April 30, but now the airline has extended the date for resuming service to the region.
Officials in the tourism sector said this could further set back the gains made and are looking to other airlines to fill the void.
Speaking at a press briefing last week, CEO of the Tourism Authority Glen Beache said it is not because of demand but of new laws the Canadian government has put in place.
“It stipulates how long Canadian owned airlines can fly for each day; if you don’t have a daily flight, it makes it harder for them to change over crews. SVG does not have a daily flight along with St Lucia, Grenada and Antigua”.
‘Barbados has a daily flight, making it easier for them to change crew each day”.
Beache said they had meetings with Air Canada as the demand is there, especially with the announcement that the carnival will return this year.
“We had discussions with Air Canada; they could not change it; we had meetings with WestJet, another Canadian airline. We spoke to South-West airline, who made it clear that we were on their radar. However, they are having an issue with crews”. Southwest had planned to hire 1200 pilots this year, and they have come nowhere close”.
Beache said they are expected to hold talks with Caribbean Airlines to see if they can fill the Toronto – SVG route, at least for the summer.
“Another option we are looking at is Sunwing; we are not sure if that will be viable. One of the reasons is that WestJet is in the process of purchasing Sunwing, but it is an option that we are exploring”, Beache said.
