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home / 世界杯决赛2022

now that unvaccinated canadians may board planes, expect even more delays

interest in travel has surpassed pre-pandemic levels, travel industry experts say. and the biggest demand has been for domestic flights

by carly penrose

jun 20 2022
read time 5 minute read
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terminal 1 domestic arrivals at toronto pearson international airport on tuesday june 14, 2022. ernest doroszuk/toronto sun/postmedia

as of monday, unvaccinated canadians can board planes and trains in canada for the first time in two years, meaning nearly seven million more people are eligible to join the growing crowds at canadian airports.

travel industry professionals say the change to government’s covid-19 travel restrictions will result in more travel and longer wait times at canadian airports. and they expect to see the biggest surge in domestic flights.
“i think there is going be a huge, significant increase in travel starting monday, from a domestic perspective” said marty firestone, president of travel secure inc., an ontario-based travel insurance company.
richard vanderlubbe, president of tripcentral.ca, agreed. “there’s definitely a pent-up demand for people who are not vaccinated, the easiest of which being domestic travel.”

since october 30, 2021, canadians who were not fully vaccinated have been unable to board airplanes or passengers trains. all passengers, regardless of vaccination status, were also subject to random covid testing and required to fill out the arrivecan app for international travel.

on june 11, the federal government announced it would suspend random testing at canadian airports until june 30. the announcement that vaccine certificate requirements for all domestic and outbound air travel would be lifted came just a few days later, on june 14, with the rule coming into effect, monday, june 20.

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wendy paradis, president of the association of canadian travel agencies, said “every time there is a measure lifted, we see a surge in bookings.”
on the day the change was announced, data from travel-booking site kayak showed a 34 per cent increase in searches for domestic flights on or after june 20, compared to searches one week prior.
in an email to the national post, paul jacobs, kayak general manager and vice president for north america, wrote “news of lifting mandates caused an immediate influx of search demand in canada. we know canadians are hungry for a change of scenery.”
“overall, travel interest for canadians over the past two weeks has surpassed pre-pandemic levels, but we’re seeing the largest increase when it comes to searches for domestic flights,” wrote jacobs. kayak’s most-searched destinations in the past week were halifax, edmonton and calgary.
peggy’s cove, 40 minutes outside halifax, the most-searched destination for canadian travellers in the past week, according to kayak. getty images/istockphoto
peggy’s cove, 40 minutes outside halifax, the most-searched destination for canadian travellers in the past week, according to kayak. getty images/istockphoto getty images/istockphoto
paradis also said the amount of airport traffic, and flight transactions in may of this year has risen past 2019 levels, and she expects top destinations for canadian travellers to be other places in canada.
the calgary stampede is back in person this year. calgary was the third-most searched destination on kayak this week. azin ghaffari/postmedia calgary.
the calgary stampede is back in person this year. calgary was the third-most searched destination on kayak this week. azin ghaffari/postmedia calgary. azin ghaffari/postmedia calgary
while the announcement will make domestic travel easier, international travel for unvaccinated canadians has become even more complex, say firestone and vanderlubbe.
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unvaccinated canadians travelling internationally still have to abide by covid restrictions for the country they are travelling to. when they return to canada, they will still be required to provide a negative test result before re-entry into canada, complete an arrivecan questionnaire, quarantine for 14 days and take multiple molecular covid-19 tests in their first week back in canada.
“nothing got solved internationally,” said firestone. “requirements that remain for unvaccinated canadians are confusing and will likely create longer waits for those returning from international destinations.”
vanderlubbe said the required 14-day quarantine for unvaccinated travellers is “a big cost,” for most travellers.
“to be subject to quarantine when you’re testing negative? i think there’s more backlash to come over that,” vanderlubbe said.
as travel surges across the globe, vaccine mandates have already been lifted in germany, france and the united kingdom.

the u.k. lifted all covid restrictions for air travel on march 18 . passenger traffic data from heathrow shows a 77 per cent increase between february and april of this year. in a typical pre-pandemic year, that increase is 23 per cent.

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this cannot be attributed to unvaccinated travellers alone. even countries that maintain their mandates, such as the netherlands, are seeing significant increases, with a surge in passenger traffic by 67 per cent at amsterdam’s schipol airport between february and april.
while people across the globe seem to be ready to start travelling again, the surge of travellers has overwhelmed understaffed airports, which has resulted in long lineups and wait times for passengers around the world.
delays at canadian airports have been attributed to covid-19 restrictions and labour shortages. removing vaccine mandates may reduce the amount of processing to be done for departures and allow unvaccinated federal transportation employees to come back to work.
many people in the tourism industry have been out of work for two years or left the sector entirely during the pandemic, which has had a huge impact on the labour force, paradis says. but as mandates are lifted, and some come back to the sector, “every single employee makes an impact.”
in an emailed statement, tori gass, a representative from toronto pearson airport, wrote that while employee vaccination rates are high, “there are hundreds of workers across the pearson ecosystem who are sitting on the sidelines due to this policy.”

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but the few unvaccinated employees returning to work won’t be enough to offset the increase in passengers that airports will see, “i expect the bottleneck to get even worse on monday,” firestone said.
vanderlubbe says he thinks hesitation from people who are uncomfortable travelling alongside unvaccinated people is also not going to outpace the increased demand for travel in canada.
while the number of passengers has been surging in the past month, firestone, vanderlubbe and paradis all say the peak is expected in the next few weeks, once school ends and unvaccinated canadians are able to fly. “here comes the summer peak, and we’re adding on another 10 per cent of the population that’s ready to travel,” said vanderlubbe.
as the peak season approaches, paradis recommends passengers be prepared, and do as much as they can to prepare for travel in advance.
“get your boarding pass from home the night before, try not to do it at the airport, get your parking passes in advance,” paradis said. “find out what’s happening at your airport, make sure you’re getting there two, two and a half hours in advance for travel in canada.”

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