The Tribune

By EARYEL BOWLEG

Tribune Staff Reporter

ebowleg@tribunemedia.net

TOURISM Minister Dionisio D’Aguilar indicated that after speaking to Air Canada’s senior vice president yesterday it appears flights from Canada won’t be resuming at least for another 30 days.

In February, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced the country’s main airlines (Air Canada, WestJet, and Sunwing) were cancelling all services to Caribbean destinations and Mexico — so called “sun destinations” — until April 30.

Mr D’Aguilar’s revelation yesterday, just days away from the anticipated flight resumption date, is another blow to The Bahamas’ struggling tourism industry.

Mr D’Aguilar also questioned why Canada’s ban on the Caribbean region continues while none was applied to their neighbours to the south, the United States.

“It seems as if the flights from Canada won’t be resuming at least for another 30 days, but you know we find it odd that the Canadians would ban flights to the Caribbean and not ban flights to the United States and the United States, as I’ve said from a COVID standpoint, is in a far worse position than the Caribbean,” Mr D’Aguilar said.

“So something is going on there that we don’t quite understand. So what Canadians are doing is simply flying to the United States and getting on to a connected flight to The Bahamas.”

US Homeland Security tweeted on April 20 that the United States is continuing restrictions on non-essential travel at the land borders through May 21 to “deter the spread of COVID-19” and “protect our citizens”.

Another tweet read: “We are guided by science and public health data and engaged in discussions with Canada and Mexico about easing restrictions as health conditions improve.”

Since March 2020, the Canada-US land border has been closed for nonessential travel. Canada is currently grappling with COVID cases. According to Reuters, the country’s province Ontario, has “expanded and extended a stay-at-home order”.

As for flights from the UK, the minister said he thinks those flights will not resume until “probably a little bit later”.

“I mean British Airways has mentioned dates... repeatedly and been unable to meet those dates,” he said.

“Remember now, our flight is tied in with Cayman and Cayman presently is, I think, still banning all visitors to their country. So until that flight — London, Nassau, Cayman — can resume we’re kind of in a hiatus.”