Air Canada will offer up to 220 transborder flights every day after the government of Canada announced it would lift entry restrictions for US citizens and permanent residents who are fully vaccinated beginning in August. The Montreal-based carrier says on 19 July that its summer schedule will include 55 routes and 34 destinations in the US. “The easing of travel restrictions announced today by the federal government is an important step based on science, and we are very pleased to rebuild our Canada-US network,” says Mark Galardo, senior vice-president, network planning and revenue management at Air Canada. “Canada and the United States share close ties and restoring air connectivity will contribute to both countries’ economic recovery.” While the government relaxed requirements for returning Canadian citizens and permanent residents earlier this month, it had not yet published plans to open the country up to foreign visitors. <br/>
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South African Airways has reached an agreement with its pilots’ association which, it hopes, will mark an end to a drawn-out conflict over the carrier’s restructuring programme. The carrier says members of the cockpit association have overwhelmingly backed the agreement, with almost 95% voting in favour. Negotiations have taken more than 10 months to conclude and SAA says the deal means it will retain 88 out of 268 remaining pilots. Cockpit union SAAPA had been trying to persuade the government to accept alternative proposals to retain greater numbers of personnel under the SAA restructuring programme. The government had argued that pilots were attempting to hold on to lucrative employment benefits, even as the embattled carrier struggled to avoid liquidation, and tried to convince individual pilots to sign up to voluntary severance packages. Such was the split between the two sides that courts have had to rule on the legitimacy of lockouts and the use of replacement labour by SAA. The new pact follows a recent ruling that went against SAAPA. “This process has been a difficult one for all concerned especially as SAA is acknowledged by the aviation industry the world over for having outstanding cockpit crew,” says SAA interim chief Thomas Kgokolo.<br/>