Oh, Canada! Canada Announces Border Reopening
The government of Canada formally announced its timeline for the easing of border restrictions for fully vaccinated travelers to enter the country.
The first step of the reopening will take place on August 9 when Canada will begin allowing fully vaccinated American citizens and permanent U.S. residents who can prove they’ve tried poutine and have attended at least one NHL game to enter Canada.
Assuming the rate of positive virus cases continues to go down and vaccination rates go up, Canada will then reopen its borders to fully vaccinated travelers from all other countries on September 7. This reopening will welcome visitors regardless of their NHL fandom.
To enter Canada via air, visitors must arrive at one of five airports:
- Halifax (YHZ)
- Québec City (YQB)
- Ottawa (YOW)
- Winnipeg (YWG)
- Edmonton (YEG)
Noticeably absent from this list are Canada’s three busiest airports: Montreal (YUL), Toronto (YYZ), and Vancouver (YVR).
All travelers, regardless of vaccination status, will still require a pre-entry COVID-19 molecular test with a negative result. However, fully vaccinated travelers will no longer be subject to a test-on-arrival except for those randomly selected for a Day 1 COVID-19 molecular test. The visitors selected at random will be chosen amongst arrivals both by air and by land.
Record Breaking Weekend in the Skies
It was a record breaking weekend for the U.S. air travel system for both the number of passengers screened through TSA checkpoints and the number of planes in the air.
On Sunday, 2,227,704 passengers were screened by the TSA, the first time the figure exceeded 2.2 million since February 28, 2020. Travel at that point had not yet begun to drop significantly, as the TSA screened more than 2 million passengers for six of the next nine days after the 28th. Yesterday’s 2.2 million marked the 3rd day in the last four the figure was over 2 million for TSA screenings and the 7th out of the last 11 days.
It wasn’t just the TSA that saw increased volume this weekend – flight tracking website FlightRadar24 tracked 100,085 commercial flights on Friday – the first time more than 100,000 flights took to the skies since March 13, 2020. Of the 100,000 it’s believed that some of them – mostly operated by Delta, JetBlue, and Southwest – operated on-time, while most of the other flights did at least land at the location it says on the ticket…or a location nearby.
American to Suspend Sydney Flights Through October
American Airlines will suspend its service between Los Angeles and Sydney at the end of August until at least the end of October. American has been operating one-way service from Sydney to Los Angeles, flying its plane to Sydney without passengers due to Australian entry restrictions.
The return from Sydney is currently slated to be suspended from August 31 to October 29 with American reserving the right to extend the suspension if Australia does not loosen entry requirements before the fall or because people just don’t want to sit in AA coach for that long.
With American temporarily ending its service to the country and concern that other international carriers will do the same, the Australian government is increasing the number of government-funded charters it offers to repatriate Australians. The flights, flown by Qantas from points all over the globe arrive at Darwin (DRW) Airport and its dedicated Howard Springs quarantine facility.
United Leaving Paine Field
United Airlines will be leaving Paine Field on October 5, leaving Alaska as the lone carrier at the alternative to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.
Paine Field opened to commercial ops two years ago with service from both Alaska and United. United flew E-175 aircraft operated by SkyWest as United Express to both Denver and San Francisco. United pulled San Francisco service from the airport last February, prior to the pandemic.
Alaska recently added a new destination from Paine Field, adding seasonal flying to Tucson beginning this November. Alaska announced earlier this year it planned to resume its pre-pandemic schedule of 18 daily nonstops from the airport by spring of next year, if not earlier.
When service to the airport was announced, it was to be limited to 24 daily flights. Southwest earned five slots but cancelled its flights before beginning service. United had six to begin, but when its Denver flight ends, Alaska will be the lone airline left at the airport – for now.
FAA Says Mechanics May Learn for Eight Hours a Day and Not a Minute More
Last summer, the School of Missionary Aviation Technology (SMAT) requested an exemption from the FAA to permit the school to hold class for an extra hour a day – increasing from eight to nine – to make up for lost time during the pandemic. The FAA finally ruled on the request and denied it with vigor.
The government said that by limiting instruction to eight hours a day, 40 hours a week and no more than six days a week provides assurances that students are retaining a sufficient amount of knowledge each day. The government also says that offering more than eight hours a day does not equate to a real-world training experience as SMAT suggested, because learning in a classroom is not remotely similar to working overtime as a certified aircraft mechanic.
Says the FAA: “In a learning environment, there is a point in the day at which the student may not retain additional information. After this point in time, any additional instruction provided would be of little value.” At this point, the FAA is saying that just because students can get through the class faster, it doesn’t mean they would retain the information or learn more efficiently, a stance that could apply to a lot more than just FAA mechanic school.
- Air New Zealand appointed Alison Gerry, Claudia Batten and Paul Goulter as directors on the airline’s Board.
- Canada Jetlines announced it intends to undertake a non-brokered private placement to raise up to C$5 million. If you know what that means, congrats on your MBA.
- Green Airlines has given all of its international flying a red light for the time being, suspending service.
- Rutaca Airlines added MD-83s and MD-88s to its fleet.
- Smartlynx Estonia is wet-leasing an A320-200.
- SAS’ $346 million aid package from the Swedish and Danish government was approved by the European Commission.
- Sky Mali has begun flying from Kayes, Mali (KYS) to Dakar (DSS).
- Titan Airways is adding its first widebody freighter, an A330-300 to its fleet.
- United has begun offering free inflight messaging on its 737 MAX 8 aircraft, a great feature to let your loved ones know your arrival will be delayed.
I saw a microbiologist today. He was much bigger than I was expecting.