Canadian airlines made impactful announcements on Wednesday with respect to the government’s closure of borders to foreign nationals as well as similar decisions by other countries. Air Transat will implement a gradual suspension of flights until April 30. Sunwing, which has temporarily suspended all southbound flights until April 9, launched flights to repatriate Canadians, and Porter Airlines is temporarily suspending all flights at the close of operations on Friday, March 20.
AIR TRANSAT
Sales for departures until April 30 are suspended immediately from and to most destinations in Europe and the United States. Repatriation flights will still be operated during the next two weeks, in order to bring Transat customers back to their home country.
Sales will remain temporarily open in both directions between Montreal and Paris and Lisbon and between Toronto and London and Lisbon for expatriation. A date for a full halt to operations will be announced soon.
Sales are also halted immediately from and to the Caribbean and Mexico. Again, flights will continue for a few more days in order to repatriate Transat customers to Canada. Transat is advising its Canadian customers who were scheduled to depart in the coming days to heed the government’s recommendations and postpone their departure.
For domestic flights, clients are encouraged to check that their flight is maintained on the website.
Transat customers who are currently at destinations are asked to check the company’s website where necessary information for the organization of their return will be made available. There will be no booking fee and passengers will not have to pay any price difference. It is of the utmost importance to Transat to bring everyone back.
All customers who were unable to travel because their flight is cancelled will receive a credit for future travel, to be used within 24 months of their original travel date.
In addition to the cost-cutting measures already implemented in recent weeks, Transat will be moving ahead in the coming days with measures to reduce staffing, stating, “These measures will include temporary layoffs and reduction of work time or salary that will unfortunately affect a significant portion of our employees. The company’s senior executives and members of the Board of Directors are also taking pay cuts.”
SUNWING
The first rescue flights departed Tuesday, repatriating over 500 Canadians and by the end of Wednesday, over 11,000 customers will be brought home to Canada on their scheduled flights, with any remaining seats being used to accommodate other Sunwing customers wanting to return earlier at no additional cost. Sunwing Experiences representatives are situated in resorts across the travel company’s destinations and are available 24/7 to support customers during this time.
President of Sunwing Airlines, Mark Williams, commented, “This unprecedented situation has had a drastic impact on our business during a short space of time. While we have communicated a temporary suspension of our southbound flights up until April 10th, at this time we cannot confirm when commercial southern flight operations will resume. That is why Sunwing was forced to communicate layoffs to our flight and cabin crew members yesterday evening. Our pilots and flight attendants play a crucial role in our operations and this was not a decision that we took lightly. Once we have confirmation on a return to service date of our southbound flights, we fully intend to recall our flight and cabin crew members. These are incredibly difficult decisions to make. But the circumstances we face are dire and we must take action to ensure the long-term viability of our business.
“Given the severe impact COVID-19 has had on our business, and the efforts we are putting in place to bring thousands of Canadians home, we are actively seeking government support. As an organization, we have never sought government support previously. But these are exceptional circumstances. Our customers need us and we’re doing everything we can to support them.”
PORTER
Michael Deluce, Porter’s president and CEO has announced a temporary suspension of all flights to allow the public health crisis to diminish before restarting operations, saying,
“Remaining flights through March 20, will allow customers to complete existing trips and return home, or make last-minute reservations to reach a destination.”
The existing waiver of change and cancellation fees means there is no cost to customers for modifying an existing itinerary.
Porter is also prepared to help recovery efforts by operating flights to support the movement of government officials, public health requirements and economic recovery efforts. Porter FBO at Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport will remain open to support these needs, as well as Ontario’s provincial medevac service and other general aviation.
Reservations are currently being taken for Porter flights starting June 1. All flights booked in June will be fully changeable and refundable to give passengers maximum flexibility as travel resumes.
Passengers can cancel existing reservations online at www.flyporter.com.
The volume of inquiries at the call centre has been consistently high this month. It is requested that only passengers with immediate travel needs through March 20 who cannot resolve their request online use the call centre in order to alleviate wait times.
Deluce added: “It is regrettable that this situation requires us to issue temporary layoffs across the business. We are doing everything possible to support our team during this period and intend to welcome back all of our team members as operations restart. Executive Chairman Robert Deluce and I will not receive any salary during this time, in alignment with the impact on our team members. All other management who remain during the temporary suspension will see salary reductions of up to 30 percent until flights resume.
“Porter’s team is exceptional. Our resilient culture has seen the company through difficult times in the past and it will allow us to do so again. We intend to come back stronger than ever and ready to meet the needs of customers.”