COVID-19 and its Impact on Canadian Domestic Air TravelBy Dylan Parry-LaiIn response to the drastic drop in demand for both international and domestic air travel in Canada, domestic airlines such as Air Canada and WestJet saw significant drops in their revenue. All of them responded by suspending many of their flights within Canada. This page will examine the shifting responses by travellers, the government, and airlines to domestic air travel in Canada from March to December 2020, with a focus on Air Canada. Air Canada has a 46% market share in the Canadian domestic airline industry, and its revenue greatly overshadows the next competitor, WestJet. Furthermore, as the flagship airline of Canada, their decisions tend to have a ripple effect on other airlines.
As much of Canada went into lockdown in mid-to-late March, Air Canada released a statement on March 18th announcing they were suspending 42 domestic routes, and reducing the number of domestic airports serviced from 62 to 40. WestJet followed suit, dropping their domestic flights to 50% for a thirty-day period. While both airlines expressed they wanted to resume some services in April, announcements in mid-April pushed this into May. By June, Air Canada permanently cancelled 30 of those suspended routes, projecting an economic recovery for the industry, and thus the company to take up to three years.
Less than two weeks after the initial March announcements, new rules from the Transport Ministry changed the domestic air travel experience. New guidelines required that all passengers be screened for COVID-19 symptoms, and barred from air travel until these symptoms were proven not to be connected to COVID-19. While mask mandates for most public health units in Ontario didn’t come into effect until June, Transport Minister Marc Garneau announced in mid-April that all passengers must wear non-medical face coverings in all Canadian airports and on all Canadian flights. What followed were images such as the ones to the right, where a traveller is photographed wearing a surgical mask, fabric face covering, and makeshift face shield, another with just a fabric mask. Other changes to the flight experience included limiting the flow of people, plexiglass barrier installations, physical distancing stickers, and a dramatically lower volume of fellow travellers. Two travel vloggers (both of whom were surprised by the destruction of their chosen career for the foreseeable future) published detailed and interesting vlogs of domestic air travel in Canada: The Prince of Travel, and Alina McLeod. My inquiry into the experiences of university students through social media found much of the same views, with common descriptors of the changes to the domestic flight experience such as weird, unsettling, empty, and scary.
However, rules and regulations are only as effective as they are enforced, and by July COVID-19 fatigue took place in the domestic air industry as well. A news article from July 7th detailed common complaints levelled at domestic airlines including repealing seat distancing on flights, inconsistent refund and cancellation policies, and lax enforcement of mask protocols amongst both passengers and staff.
The human cost of these changes to the industry is also noteworthy, as Air Canada found itself needing to furlough employees to remain soluble. A press release from March 30thannounced a wide range of financial readjustments, including furloughing 15,200 unionised employees and 1,300 managers.
It remains to be seen if these cuts which saved $1.3 billion CAD will also save the airline, since Air Canada reported almost $4 billion in losses over the first three quarters of 2020. Air Canada temporarily grounded 225 of its 400 aircraft, and permanently grounded 79.
COVID-19 has already had wide-reaching and long-lasting effects on the international and domestic air industry, and is likely to change it in as yet unforeseen ways. One change is the shift towards flexible booking options, with Air Canada releasing the Infinite Canada flight pass. According to the press release, ”For one flat fee, pass holders will be able to book travel without blackout or booking restrictions, make changes or cancellations without penalty, and fly as often as desired for up to three months, depending on the duration of pass purchased.” Another change is increased digitalised data collections requirements for flights within and to Canada. As of November 21st, travellers whose final destination is Canada must use ArriveCAN, an app which asks for information regarding travel and contact information, quarantine plan, COVID-19 symptom self-assessment, checking in at quarantine location, and daily self-assessment. This will likely continue at least until the pandemic is over, but also sets a precedent for future air travel.
The COVID-19 pandemic has affected the Canadian domestic air travel industry in several key ways: a sharp decline in overall demand for domestic air travel, followed by a rapid scaling back of flight routes and serviced cities by both major Canadian airlines; changes to the check-in, boarding, flight, and arrival experience, including mask mandates and quarantine requirements; wide-spread laying off of airline employees and aircraft groundings to save money, with as yet unknown results; and changes to the industry’s approach to business. However, these changes have been marred by inconsistent enforcement of regulations, foreseeably low travel demand for the next few years, and the suspected end to the “golden era” of commercial air travel. These complications are compounded in a country such as Canada, where many remote communities are kept connected to the rest of the country solely by air, and where vast distances can only be effectively covered by plane.
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Empty check-in line at Toronto Pearson Airport, 2020.
A passenger wearing a protective face covering on an Air Canada flight.
Air Canada 777 C-FIUR at Toronto Pearson International Airport (YYZ)
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