On November 2, the Calgary International Airport became a place of hope for international travel as a unique pilot program began using rigorous testing and monitoring to keep Canadians safe, while reducing quarantine. 

This Canadian first-of-its-kind is the work of the Government of Alberta in partnership with the Government of Canada. It is the health and science-based approach that WestJet and all Canadian aviation have been seeking. The program will help create additional confidence in the travel process by allowing Canadians and other eligible travellers the ability to reduce the quarantine requirements down to around 48-hours with a negative test result, followed by another COVID test six to seven days later. This significant first step will give peace of mind to those who need to travel and were feeling apprehensive.

Pre-COVID WestJet had a vision of bringing Canadians to the world and the world to Canadians. We still have that vision but for a start we now must safely and responsibly re-open international travel to get some of the 600,000 Canadians, directly and indirectly employed in travel and tourism back to work.

We look forward to a successful trial as we know the rest of Canada will be watching. The results from the trial will be critical in helping remove a significant barrier to international travel across our country.