| | |  Travel & Outdoors | April 2009 
Canadian Air Services Grounded
 Tamas Virag & Michelle Thompson - Sun Media
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| | Marcel Jean reads yesterday's Sun at Edmonton International Airport while waiting for a flight to Fort McMurray. (Amber Bracken/Sun Media) | |
On the day thousands of Mexican-bound travellers found out their flights had been grounded, officials confirmed two Albertans had come down with swine flu.
The federal government issued a travel advisory to Mexico, prompting numerous airlines to cancel all flights to that country for weeks to come.
Air Canada and Air Canada Vacations will suspend all operations to Cancun, Cozumel and Puerto Vallarta, until June 1. The airline said it will maintain its flights to Mexico City.
WestJet and WestJet Vacations said it would stop service to Cancun, Cabo San Lucas, Mazatlan, and Puerto Vallarta effective May 4 with service to Cabo San Lucas, Mazatlan and Puerto Vallarta to resume on June 20. Service to Cancun would return in the fall.
The move is expected to affect close to 1,500 local passengers each week, Edmonton International Airport spokesman Traci Bednard said, adding that number would have decreased by the middle of May, as the traditional season for travel to Mexico winds down.
About 12 to 15 planes - each with roughly 100 passengers - leave EIA every week with Mexico as their final destination.
The scores of interrupted travellers included 11 Edmontonian youths who were ready to do missionary work in Oaxaca.
As of yesterday, they had to suspend their good deeds, Travel CUTS agent Karen Ryks said.
"They've been fundraising for a year. They're devastated," she said, adding the group was scheduled to leave this weekend.
"Trying to renegotiate something so fast ... you can't just turn around and book a new destination with less than a week's notice for any sort of reasonable price.
"I mean these kids, they're not able to go. They're having to put it off."
Despite the countless inconveniences, Ryks defended the industry's decision to suspend much of the travel to Mexico.
"I think it's responsible of our charter operators that have decided to cancel their flights and not take the Canadians down; I mean that just makes sense," she said.
"Make sure everybody gets home, and then put it off until June. I think that's the smartest thing they could have done."
Also, Carnival Cruise Lines has suspended stops at Mexican ports over concerns about swine flu.
Meanwhile, two Albertans - both of whom returned from Mexico recently - are recovering from mild forms of the swine flu, Alberta's chief medical officer said.
"Both had a very mild form of illness and are recovering uneventfully," Dr. Andre Corriveau told reporters.
"Neither of them have required hospitalization."
The situation is far worse in Mexico, where about 150 locals have died and an estimated 2,000 became ill.
In Canada, more than a dozen cases have been confirmed, though a Canadian has yet to die.
But Corriveau said he wouldn't be surprised if more cases were recorded.
"I think we're all across the country expecting to see more cases," he said. "But it's really hard to predict where they might surface next."
The two Alberta cases include a man in Calgary and another in northern Alberta.
Both men had recently made trips to Mexico, said Corriveau, although he wouldn't elaborate on which part of the country they visited.
He also declined to specify when the men returned, when they sought medical attention, or how old they are. He wouldn't say which part of northern Alberta the second patient called home.
Neither man was quarantined though they were monitored and advised to stay home until they recovered and stopped showing symptoms.
tamas.virag(at)sunmedia.ca - michelle.thompson(at)sunmedia.ca |
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