The new omicron strain continues to spread with high contagiousness (but almost zero mortality), and Canadian airlines have canceled flights to several holiday destinations, mostly in the Caribbean.
On December 15, 2021, the Public Health Agency of Canada advised against non-essential travel abroad.
Air Canada
Canada’s leading airline will suspend multiple beach destinations from January 24 until April 30, 2022, the same measure it took last year in the wake of the Brazilian strains.
The suspended destinations include Antigua (ANU), Aruba (AUA), Samana (ADZ), Curacao (CUR), Exuma (GGT), Grenada (GND), Puerto Plata (POP), Santo Domingo (SDQ), Bermuda (BDA), Grand Cayman (GCM), Havana (HAV), St. Vincent and the Grenadines (SVD), St. Maarten (SXM) and St. Kitts and Nevis (SKB).
To prevent Canadian residents from being stranded due to the suspensions, Air Canada plans to operate multiple one-way commercial flights from the affected destinations to return travelers on the suspended routes to Canada.
Westjet
With the impact of Omicron the airline has faced several challenges, staff shortages and prolonged frigid temperatures in Western Canada, being forced to cancel approximately 15% of its scheduled flights until January 31, 2022.
Impacted passengers will be able to change their flight itineraries, refunds to the original form of payment, or they can use Westjet’s flexible change and cancellation policies.
Air Transat
Canada’s leading leisure airline is canceling nearly 30% of its flights in the coming months due to the increased impact of the new COVID-19 variant and the anticipated precautionary measures by Canadian authorities have resulted in multiple flight cancellations affecting thousands of passengers.
Between Thursday and Friday of last week, Air Transat canceled around 87 flights. The company has not yet specified the routes affected, but passengers will also be able to refund their tickets and will have the option to rebook.
