Air Canada resumes flights to Trinidad after visa-free travel announcement

Air Canada joins the list of airlines returning to TT.

From November 1, Air Canada will operate three flights weekly; arriving on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays at 11.25 pm and departing at 12.30 am on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays.

The return of Air Canada comes as the Canadian government announced visa-free travel for 13 countries, including TT, for nationals who have had a Canadian visa in the past ten years or who now have a US visa. They can apply for entry to Canada by a quick online application electronically linked to their passports, dubbed an electronic travel authorisation (eTA).

In a statement Saturday, Tourism Trinidad Ltd announced the return of flights from Toronto saying it was welcome news for the tourism industry, noting Air Canada remains a vital partner. It said in 2019, before the pandemic, the flew 22,918 passengers to Trinidad.

Carla Cupid, Tourism Trinidad CEO, said “We welcome back Air Canada to our destination. This is a positive development for our tourism industry, and we look forward to using this connection to continue to promote Trinidad as a top travel destination.”

Canadian High Commissioner Arif Keshani, also in the statement, noted that, “The ties between our countries are significant and I am very pleased that Air Canada will be resuming their flight between Port of Spain and Toronto this fall. This, combined with the expansion of Canada’s electronic travel authorization (eTA) programme to include Trinidad and Tobago, will further serve to enhance our bilateral economic, social and people to people connections.”

Tourism, Culture and the Arts Minister Randall Mitchell also said the return of Air Canada will improve TT's airlift capacity.

"We continue to work with our international partners and stakeholders in the air transportation industry to increase our connectivity and seat capacity from our traditional source markets while at the same time, reducing the cost of travel to TT.”

He also noted its added importance with the visa-free travel arrangement.

Tourism Trinidad and the ministry said the service between Toronto and Port of Spain "will provide a convenient and affordable way for Canadians to travel to Trinidad and vice-versa, while helping to attract more visitors from other parts of the world."

TT's airlift will also get a boost when JetBlue and American Airlines begins flying twice daily to Trinidad over the next few months.

These additional flights will provide more than 2,000 seats to the North American market, Tourism Trinidad said in a previous release.

JetBlue will start a "red-eye" flight from New York on Friday until the first week in September and American Airlines will have an additional flight from Miami from August 15 until September 5.

JetBlue operates over 1,000 flights daily and American Airlines currently has one daily flight from Miami, with a seat capacity of 172 per flight. The release said between January and April, American Airlines brought 4,211 people into Trinidad.