Although expectations were high for the first season of restriction-free travel, the present pandemonium at airports is making two years of Covid appear like a little inconvenience. Flight delays, cancellations, claims of missing luggage, and emergency re-routing owing to air traffic congestion are now common across the sector.
No matter how experienced a traveler is, or how early they check-in and arrive at the airport, there is now a chance they could miss their flight as wait lines get longer and security staff tries to keep up with the never-ending flow of people. Even though the whole world is experiencing travel chaos, Canada is being struck considerably worse than others. Canada is one of the few Western countries where Covid travel limitations still exist.
Aside from the obvious consequences of lost funds and the downfall of the tourism industry, another issue caused by these severe border restrictions is airport delays. Currently, travelers entering Canada must provide a vaccination certificate, unless exempt, and download the ArriveCan app.
Canadian officials have been known to rigorously inspect incoming travelers to ensure that they comply with health regulations, including subjecting them to random testing upon arrival. Inevitably, these rules have impeded the industry’s complete recovery, and it appears that they are just exacerbating airport delays.
According to Canada’s Conservative Party, “during the July 1 weekend, passengers transiting Canadian airports suffered more flight delays than others in ‘nearly any other country in the world’. The opposing has repeatedly called for the Trudeau Administration to drop the remaining rules, seen as a major contributor to this travel chaos”.
Canada’s travel economy is dangling by a thread as a result of the country’s self-imposed, debilitating limitations, and the longer this continues, the more difficult it will be to completely restart travel.
Despite the massive aircraft cancellations that enraged hundreds of thousands of Canadians, Air Canada, and Toronto’s Pearson Airport remained the worst in the world for flight delays as on June 26. According to The Canadian Press, 65% of Air Canada flights were delayed.
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