Canada’s busiest airport and largest airlines are putting pressure on the federal government to drop arrival testing requirements for vaccinated air travellers and go back to random testing (dropping pre-arrival negative PCR tests is a different story).
What happened: Air Canada, WestJet and Toronto Pearson Airport have issued a joint letter signed by their chief medical officers, stating the on-arrival requirement diverts tests away from people who need them most and burdens the labs that process them.
- They cite data around positivity rates: The national average positivity rate is 28%, but among air travellers it is only ~2%.
Canada’s Chief Public Health Officer Theresa Tam has some thoughts: “Tracking every case isn’t really necessary from a surveillance perspective,” Tam said. She suggests that random testing could still be useful to identify potential new variants.
Where we’re at: Canada currently requires all incoming air travellers to present both their proof of vaccination and a negative COVID-19 test taken within 72 hours of their scheduled flight.
Last November, Canada ramped up its efforts by requiring all air travellers to test for COVID-19, unless arriving on a direct flight from the US, and isolate while waiting for their results. The testing requirements have been causing delays of:
- 45 min-1 hour at Calgary International Airport.
- 1-1.5 hours at Vancouver International Airport.
- 2-3 hours at Toronto Pearson Airport.
Zoom out: The testing requirements and resulting wait times could further deter travellers from entering Canada, impacting the economic boost of tourism spending. Canadian traffic at airport security checkpoints was 53% of 2019 levels up until mid-December, compared to 84% in the US, where testing requirements for air travellers are more relaxed.
