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From visiting friends and family to getting goods to markets around the world, Canadians rely on a robust aviation industry with diverse international air services. Expanding Canada’s existing air transport relationships allows airlines to introduce more flight options and routings, which benefit passengers and businesses by providing greater choice and convenience.
Marc Garneau, Minister of Transport, has announced that Canada has successfully concluded new or expanded air transport agreements with St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Algeria, Qatar, Jordan, Côte-d’Ivoire and Mongolia.
“We are pleased to develop new air transport relationships and expand existing ones with our many partner countries around the world. These new and expanded agreements provide air carriers with additional flexibility to serve these growing markets, which is good news for travellers, shippers and the air transport industry, said Garneau.
The new agreement with St. Vincent and the Grenadines is an open skies-type agreement, which allows an unlimited number of passenger and cargo flights between Canada and St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
The expanded air transport agreements with Algeria, Qatar and Jordan allow designated airlines to operate more flights per week to and from Canada. The expanded Canada-Jordan agreement also allows designated airlines to serve any city in the other country’s territory.
“Every action toward diversifying international markets is a step toward greater prosperity for Canadians. New and expanded air agreements facilitate export opportunities for Canadian businesses and investors around the globe. With our Trade Diversification Strategy, we intend to broaden our reach by achieving 50 per cent more exports by 2025. This is just another tangible example of how we are working to achieve this goal,” stated Jim Carr, Minister of International Trade Diversification.
The modernized agreement with Côte-d’Ivoire has been expanded to include a fully open and flexible code-sharing regime. The first-time agreement with Mongolia provides an open and flexible code-sharing regime and will help to strengthen the burgeoning bilateral air transport relationship. Code-sharing occurs when an air carrier sells seats on a flight operated by another air carrier, allowing it to expand its network and product offerings.
As these new or expanded agreements are being administratively applied, the new rights under these new and expanded agreements are available for use by airlines immediately.
