Air Canada to temporarily suspend flights to U.S.

Air Canada has announced it is suspending service to the United States after Canada and the U.S. agreed to extend restrictions on cross-border travel for another 30 days because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The airline said Tuesday its last commercial flights between Canada and the U.S. will be on April 26. It plans to resume service May 22, unless government restrictions are extended again. It will waive change fees for affected customers.

Non-essential travel between Canada and the U.S. was banned as of March 21, though the border has remained open for trade and commerce, with exemptions also granted for emergency response and public health purposes.

The original border restrictions put in place a month ago were set to expire today, but the new agreement extends it until mid-May.

WestJet has also extended its suspension of all transborder and international flights. It stopped flying those routes as of March 22 for 30 days. As of yesterday, it extended the service suspension until June 4.

WestJet also announced that it is cutting 600 flights per day from its domestic schedule between May 5 and June 4, including the temporary cancellation of routes between some Canadian cities.

Air Transat flights have been suspended until May 31 and Porter Airlines grounded all flights until June 1. Sunwing also suspended all commercial flights but has yet to announce a return-to-service date.

Air Canada said it has reduced its schedule by 90 per cent due to COVID-19, but it had continued service to 11 U.S. destinations to help repatriate Canadians over the past month.

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