The federal government has warned that Canada’s three-month suspension of flights to Mexico could cause a ‘serious economic crisis’ in North America.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Friday that flights to Mexico and the Caribbean would be suspended until Sunday, April 30, citing the risk Canada poses by new, more contagious strains of the coronavirus. He also said that travelers entering Canada will be required to quarantine in hotels for up to three days at their own expense until they receive a negative Covid-19 test result.
It is unclear when the mandatory hotel quarantine requirement will begin. The Canadian government said in a statement that “as soon as possible in the coming weeks, all air travelers arriving in Canada, with very limited exceptions, will have a room in a Government of Canada-approved hotel at their own expense for three nights. should discuss, ”adding that“ more details will be available in the coming days. ”
Regarding the temporary cessation of flights, the Mexican Foreign Ministry said in a statement that the federal government hopes that the suspension “can be lifted as soon as possible to address a serious economic crisis in the North American region. prevent.”
Canada is the second most important source country for travelers to Mexico to the United States, although the number of visitors has decreased by 56% in 2020 to just under 2.1 million due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Six airlines will be directly affected by the suspension of flights, the newspaper said Reform reported, including the flag bearer of Mexico, Aeroméxico.
The airline has announced it will suspend flights from Mexico to Canada from the second week of February to April 30. Aeroméxico said in a statement that its flights to Toronto would be suspended on February 8 and its services to Montreal and Vancouver on February 10.
Trudeau said Canadian airlines would make arrangements with customers already in Mexico and the Caribbean to organize their return flights.
The news agency AFP reported that Canada’s new travel rules, which also include a requirement for international passengers to undergo PCR Covid-19 tests upon arrival at Canadian airports, cause cause for concern among some travelers at the airport in Mexico City on Friday.
‘I understand that they want to prevent more people from being infected … but at the same time I’m a little irritated because I’d already paid for a test [which is required before boarding a flight to Canada] and doing it again is uncomfortable, ”said Ludmila Guerra, a 40-year-old Salvadoran resident of Canada.
A 30-year-old engineer just identified as Héctor went to the airport to board an earlier flight to ensure he could get to Canada – and avoid hotel quarantine.
The suspension of flights is a heavy blow to the Mexican tourism sector, which had the most difficult year in memory in 2020. (The Mexican economy fell by 8.5% in 2020 – the worst contraction in almost 90 years – and tourism was one of the hardest hit sectors.)
Its announcement comes just three days after a rule required travelers to the United States to implement a negative Covid-19 test result. The US test requirement and a new quarantine guideline are expected to harm Mexico’s tourism industry. The new Canadian restrictions will only exacerbate the pain.
The National Tourism Business Council (CNET) has said that 2021 could finally be a much worse year for tourism than 2020.
The suspension of flights from Canada coupled with the Mexican government’s failure to launch a campaign highlighting what tourist destinations in Mexico are doing to reduce the risk of coronavirus infection will result in the Easter holiday period being lost, CNET said.
The Center for Research and Tourism’s competitiveness of Anáhuac University said that visitor numbers from Canada could drop by 95% in the first four months of the year and that the tourism sector would miss out on revenue of more than US $ 1 billion.
Cancún, Puerto Vallarta and Los Cabos are the most popular airports among Canadian visitors and therefore the destinations will be most hurt by the three month suspension of flights.
The Canadian and US travel test and quarantine requirements are also likely to have a negative impact on the summer holiday period, although the roll-out of Covid-19 vaccines has the potential to significantly change the pandemic situation by the middle of the year.
Mexico, Canada and the United States have all started administering vaccines, but the percentage of the population that has been shot remains very low in all three countries.
Just over 662,000 doses of Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine were administered to health workers in Mexico on Friday night, but the government’s vaccination program has not yet reached the elderly or any other sector in the population.
Source: AFP (sp), Reforma (sp)