Close X
Monday, November 11, 2024
ADVT 
National

China wants more Canada flights after COVID-19 turbulence, despite tour-group ban

Darpan News Desk The Canadian Press, 25 Aug, 2023 09:59 AM
  • China wants more Canada flights after COVID-19 turbulence, despite tour-group ban

Beijing and Ottawa are in talks over how to increase flights between China and Canada, following an American deal in June.

Transport Canada says the weekly number of flights between the two countries has dropped drastically, from more than one hundred per week in the summer of 2019 to just 10 this season.

The decline stems from China's strict COVID-19 rules that Beijing relaxed earlier this year, which included limits on foreign flights and frequent quarantines and testing for visitors.

Aviation analyst Helane Becker says those rules made airlines break up their flights, making stops in places like Korea to rotate crews, and no direct flight between China and Canada has been re-established since then.

Meanwhile, Beijing has kept Canada out of an agreement that makes it easier for Chinese tour groups to travel abroad, citing the diplomatic strain around issues like foreign interference.

Yet both countries say they're in talks to increase the number of flights, with Ottawa hinting it might seek a deal similar to a recent American agreement.

 

MORE National ARTICLES

B.C. staff who failed to check on two abused foster children lose jobs: ministry

B.C. staff who failed to check on two abused foster children lose jobs: ministry
While the Ministry of Children and Family Development did not provide the names or the number of people involved, it said in a statement "the staff who were directly involved in this case are no longer employed by the ministry." The statement said ministry staff did not follow its policy that children in care should be seen regularly by a social worker.    

B.C. staff who failed to check on two abused foster children lose jobs: ministry

7 infrastructure projects coming to BC

7 infrastructure projects coming to BC
A joint investment of more than 5.5-million-dollars will support work in Williams Lake, Prince George, Prince Rupert and Merritt. The projects involve improvements to the Cariboo Memorial Recreation Complex in Williams Lake as well as ventilation in four schools and a social housing complex in the northern region.

7 infrastructure projects coming to BC

Multiple boats stolen in Kelowna

Multiple boats stolen in Kelowna
Police are looking for witnesses after multiple boats were stolen from a locked campground in Kelowna. R-C-M-P say 14 boats were stolen between June 20th and 27th from McCurdy Place from within plain view of traffic on Highway 97.  

Multiple boats stolen in Kelowna

Searchers look for B.C. teen missing in provincial park since Tuesday

Searchers look for B.C. teen missing in provincial park since Tuesday
RCMP say 16-year-old Esther Wang from Langley, B.C., was part of a group of four people who were hiking in Golden Ears Provincial Park on Tuesday.  The group left a lookout point at about 2:45 p.m. to head back to their campground and about 15 minutes later they noticed that Wang was missing.

Searchers look for B.C. teen missing in provincial park since Tuesday

Sketch of an unidentified man released:VPD

Sketch of an unidentified man released:VPD
Vancouver Police have released a composite sketch of an unidentified man who died after being found in medical distress this spring. They say the man was found on the grounds of the Britannia Community Centre on March 24th and died later in hospital.  

Sketch of an unidentified man released:VPD

Student charged in University of Waterloo stabbing that injured three

Student charged in University of Waterloo stabbing that injured three
The violence that took place on the campus about 100 kilometres west of Toronto a day earlier left three people injured and many others expressing shock at what happened.  The stabbings sent a 38-year-old professor and two students – a 20-year-old woman and 19-year-old man – to hospital with serious but non-life-threatening injuries.

Student charged in University of Waterloo stabbing that injured three