Air Canada suspending passenger service to northern city of Yellowknife on Jan. 23
Airline says it’s cutting operations due to ‘stifled demand,’ travel restrictions, quarantine rules
Air Canada is suspending passenger service to Yellowknife on Jan. 23 and until further notice.
The airline said in an email Tuesday that it’s cutting flights to the city due to “stifled demand from ongoing travel restrictions and blanket quarantine rules.”
“Operating in this environment is not sustainable and we have made difficult decisions to suspend all passenger operations to Yellowknife airport until further notice, effective January 23, 2021.”
In the email, the airline says its “overall network capacity” is down about 80 per cent from 2019.
It says it will continue to evaluate and adjust its routes based on the trajectory of the pandemic and travel restrictions.
The airline did not immediately respond to a request for an interview.
WestJet, Canadian North and Air North also run passenger flights to Yellowknife.
Related stories from around the North:
Canada: Chamber of Commerce in Canada’s Northwest Territories says tourism threatened by COVID-19 border restrictions, CBC News
Denmark: Who is allowed into Denmark from Sweden right now?, Radio Sweden
Finland: How not to promote Arctic tourism, Eye on the Arctic
Greenland: Greenland changes COVID-19 rules for travellers from Iceland, Faroe Islands, Eye on the Arctic
Norway: Norwegian Arctic wilderness tourism hit particularly hard by coronavirus, The Independent Barents Observer
Russia: All Russia’s North Pole cruises rescheduled to 2021, Eye on the Arctic
Sweden: Summer tourism recovery is slow going in Sweden, Yle News
United States: Airline shutdown creates new challenges for rural Alaska, The Associated Press
It’s high time that the GNWT valued the place of tourism in their economy a little more than they do. It’s nothing but border closures which amount to smoke and mirrors. Rapid testing machines are available in the NWT”s major towns now and it’s difficult to qualify for a test. Underqualified border “protectors” who are friendly and mean well are asked to do a job which accomplishes nothing. The NWT needs to modernize itself a great, great deal and begin using testing and other means to protect from COVID 19 and recognize they are losing jobs, lifelihoods and a certain quality of life that comes from being a destination people want to visit. There’s a light at the end of the tunnel called Canadians who would gratefully travel to the NWT this summer–_COVID free– if they were just given the chance. It’s supposed to be one country and “in it together”, but I just see the GNWT grandstanding behind a policy of travel oppression. Congratulations on having Canada’s lowest COVID numbers and an entire industry erased from existence.