Tourism officials disappointed as Air Canada postpones its return
The positive strides made by Antigua and Barbuda’s tourism officials to help the industry recover suffered a blow this week when Air Canada announced that it would not be returning at the end of April.
Air Canada announced earlier this year that it was suspending several flights into the region as a result of the pandemic, however it indicated that it planned to resume in 90 days which would have been 30th April.
The news that the airline has now pushed its return back to 29th October appears to have caught many tourism authorities across the region off guard as they all were preparing for the additional air lift as one territory after another continues the trend of increasingly relaxed COVID-19 travel requirements.
Here in Antigua and Barbuda, Tourism Minister Charles Fernandez said the news was disappointing.
“We were hoping they would be back online early. They have been with us for over sixty years, and we consider them an important stakeholder in the whole aspect of the tourism product for us.”
This setback will not deter the efforts of the tourism ministry, however, as Minister Fernandez revealed that other options are already being explored with other airlines.
The Canadian market is not entirely closed off to Antigua and Barbuda as Westjet continues to provide regular airlift into the country. Steady progress is being made despite this fairly significant disappointment.
This year, the Ministry of Tourism announced proudly that it broke visitor arrival records in October and November 2021 with respect to visitors from the United Kingdom.
This was credited to many people being anxious to vacation after global air travel shut down almost entirely after the pandemic began in 2020. SOURCE POINTE EXPRESS
Advertise with the mоѕt vіѕіtеd nеwѕ ѕіtе іn Antigua!
We offer fully customizable and flexible digital marketing packages.
Contact us at [email protected]
I didn’t want to remind you that I told you so about Canada – BUT I TOLD YOU SO!
Over to you now Minister Fernández …
People gloat at this and within the same vein they criticise the country when they put tourism at the front of our development thrust. Really goes to show that these sort of people care nothing about Antigua.
Probably by then all testing will have been dropped prior to arrival
Fully vaccinated persons no longer require a test to enter from 1st April.
Comments are closed.