Corporate Canada is putting pressure on political decision makers in Ottawa to ease restrictions on air travel.
In a letter published in The Globe and Mail, a group of 27 leading executives called for Canada to ease coronavirus restrictions on air travel. The letter provides support to the travel industry’s push to relax air curbs as most international flights to and from Canada remain canceled.
The executives, including the Chief Executive Officer of Royal Bank of Canada, asked Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and provincial premiers to "find a responsible way to co-exist with COVID-19 until there is a vaccine."
Air Canada's Chief Executive Officer Calin Rovinescu and the tourism industry group Canadian Travel & Tourism Roundtable last week urged the government to lift travel restrictions in an open letter.
Other signatories to the letter in the Globe and Mail included heads of Bank of Nova Scotia (T.BNS), Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd, (T.FFH) WestJet Airlines (T.WJA), Canadian National Railway Co., (T.CNR) Rogers Communications Inc. (T.RCI,B) and Enbridge Inc. (T.ENB).
"Air travel is not only important for tourism - it is also critical for the entire Canadian economy," the letter reads. There was no immediate response from the federal government in Ottawa to the published letter.
