We wanted to make you aware of upcoming new entry requirements being imposed by the Government of Canada and that may affect your customer’s upcoming flight to Canada.
The Government of Canada advised us on December 31st that, effective January 7, 2021:
- All customers five years of age or older entering Canada from an international destination are required to provide, prior to boarding a flight, a negative COVID-19 PCR test.
- The test must be taken within 72 hours of departure from the flight to Canada. Some exceptions apply.
- At present, the Government of Canada has not yet finalized or published a list of testing facilities for every country. Visit gc.ca for official updates.
- If your customer’s flight to Canada departs from one of the recognised countries identified by the Government of Canada as a country where PCR testing is deemed unavailable, they may still travel, however upon landing in Canada, they will be required to quarantine for 14 days in a Public Health Agency of Canada quarantine location.
- Even with a negative COVID-19 PCR test all customers entering Canada will still have to complete a mandatory 14-day quarantine.
Your customer does not need to provide a negative COVID-19 PCR test if:
- Their flight to Canada is prior to January 7; and/or
- They are only transiting through a Canadian airport from one international destination to another, without entering Canada.
Please note that we do not control these directives and that details are subject to change. We recommend you visit travel.gc.ca for official updates from the Government of Canada. They have also published a list of frequently asked questions about the new testing requirement. For specific questions related to the implementation of the government policy, please contact the government or Canadian Consular Services.
We regret the challenging nature of how this new government-imposed testing requirement is being rolled out with some significant details lacking. We appreciate that this may be disruptive to your customer’s travel plans especially if their travel is imminent. While the government has not published full details as of yet, we wanted to share what we do know as soon as possible so that you can plan accordingly.
Please visit Air Canada’s COVID-19 testing page where we will share the latest information as we receive it from the Government of Canada.