Air Canada cancels direct flights from Quebec City to sun destinations for fall 2023 and winter 2024, citing supply issues and pilot shortages, while Air Transat opts instead add.
Travelers from the greater Quebec City area who choose to board Air Canada will need to make a stopover before they can set foot in the hot sand.
The change was made in the airline’s system on August 9, confirmed in an interview Christophe Hennebelle, Air Canada’s vice-president of communications.
Direct Quebec-Cancún flights are suspended from October 23, but should resume in the spring of 2024, he said. Flights to Punta Cana, Orlando and Fort Lauderdale, which are not offered during the summer, will not resume as planned in the fall.
Direct flights from Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver do not change.
“All customers who have reservations on the flights that are canceled, first we apologize to them. They have received or will receive an offer to go through other airports or a refund option if they do not wish to travel by another route,” explains Christophe Hennebelle of Air Canada.
By making an online reservation on the carrier’s website, we observe that stopovers in Montreal are quick when you want to fly to Cancún, but long to Punta Cana. The site offers, for example, next November, a Quebec-Montreal flight that lands at 4 p.m. and does not leave for Punta Cana until 8 a.m. the next day.
The shortage of pilots and problems with the supply of parts for conventional aircraft maintenance are causing delays and forcing the carrier to manage its network differently, says Christophe Hennebelle.
“The demand for pilots especially for regional markets forces us to look a bit at our entire network to manage these constraints and increase operational reliability in order to have the least possible impact on our customers. »
While Air Canada is cutting its direct flights to Punta Cana and Cancun, Air Transat is choosing to add more. “The program was announced last May and in no way implies recent decisions by the competition to change its schedule,” said Bernard Côté, director of public relations at Transat.
Despite the shortage of pilots and problems with the supply of parts, the program will not change, supports Transat.
“We intend to continue our operations from Jean-Lesage airport and consolidate our position as the leading Canadian carrier to the Dominican Republic by offering an additional direct flight from Quebec to Punta Cana for a total of six weekly flights and to Puerto Plata with two flights per week,” says Bernard Côté.
Air Transat offers 29 direct flights per week to Florida, Mexico, Cuba and the Dominican Republic. For its part, Sunwing plans 21 direct flights per week to Mexico, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Panama and Honduras. The carrier claims to have “increased its recruitment activities by hiring seasonal pilots and cabin crew members throughout Quebec for the upcoming winter season. »
