Air Canada temporarily cuts staff and int’l routes

Air Canada (AC, Montréal Trudeau) will temporarily lay off 1,500 employees and an unspecified number of executives as it cuts 17 more international routes between February 14 until at least April 30 in response to harsher travel restrictions imposed by the government to contain the spread of new strains of COVID-19. “We are further reducing our transborder and international commercial schedule as a result of COVID-19,” a spokesperson for Air Canada told ch-aviation by email. Flights from Toronto to Tel Aviv Ben Gurion will continue to be suspended, and flights from Toronto to Dubai Int’l and Hong Kong Int’l will have their start-ups postponed. At the end of January, Canadian airlines agreed to suspend all flights to Mexico and the Caribbean until April 30, at the request of the federal government. Last week, Air Canada said it planned to temporarily halt operations at Air Canada rouge (RV, Toronto Pearson), which primarily operates the company’s flights to Mexico and the Caribbean. The service cuts involved temporary layoffs of around 80 employees. Meanwhile, Swoop (WO, Hamilton, ON), a low-cost carrier owned by WestJet (WS, Calgary), said it had notified employees that it would reduce its workforce by 36 flight crew members as of February 16, in light of the new restrictions. In addition to flights to Mexico and the Caribbean, Swoop also suspended flights from Edmonton Int’l to Phoenix Williams Gateway until April 30, given a new federal mandate that all international flights must land in Vancouver Int’l, Calgary, Toronto Pearson, or Montréal Trudeau. The airline continued to operate a domestic-only schedule.