/CNW/ - Today, the Canada Enterprise Emergency Funding Corp. (CEEFC) announced a new loan under the Large Employer Emergency Financing Facility (LEEFF). The.
Jon Victor
A plane is seen through the window on the tarmac of Vancouver International Airport as the waiting room is empty Tuesday, June 9, 2020. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jonathan Hayward February 01, 2021 - 3:00 PM
MONTREAL - As Canada s airlines suspend flights to Mexico and the Caribbean, U.S. carriers including Delta Air Lines and American Airlines say they have no plans to stop offering service to sun destinations, raising questions about both the business fallout for domestic airlines and the measure s effectiveness for slowing the spread of COVID-19.
Canadian airlines have already been losing market share over the last several months to foreign carriers, said Mike McNaney, president and CEO of the National Airlines Council of Canada. Now, however, the only routes available to certain destinations will be aboard foreign airlines selling flights with stopovers in U.S. cities.
Christopher Katsarov/The Canadian Press
The federal government is extending $375-million in credit to Sunwing Vacations Inc. and Sunwing Airlines Inc., days after the airline agreed to suspend flights to Mexico and the Caribbean.
Toronto-based Sunwing is among the four airlines cancelling flights to several vacation destinations until the end of April at Ottawa’s request. WestJet Airlines Ltd., Air Canada and Transat AT Inc. also agreed to cancel flights to many sun destinations. The drastic move is a bid to slow the spread of a new and more transmissible variant of COVID-19.
The loan is being granted to the two divisions of Sunwing Travel Group under the federal government’s Large Employer Emergency Financing Facility (LEEFF), which was established in May to help big companies weather the pandemic. So far the program has proved unpopular, with fewer than 20 applicants and only two other loans approved: $200-million to Gateway Casinos and Entertainment Ltd., and $120-million t