Tampa International Airport to resume nonstop flights to Canada
Provided by: Air Canada
TAMPA, Fla. - It’s been more than six months since an airplane departed from Tampa to head straight to Canada. On Saturday, those flights can resume.
The Tampa International Airport made the announcement Friday, saying nonstop flights to Toronto on Air Canada will return. The flights will be available on weekends only, for now.
The airline last offered seasonal flights from Toronto between October 2020 to January 21, but flights were suspended again due to COVID-19 and travel restrictions.
All other Canadian flights were suspended in April and have not resumed, TPA officials said.
"Canada is the number one international visitor market into Tampa Bay with 436,773 passengers flying between Canada and Tampa in 2019," the airport reported. "Due to the pandemic, that number dropped 66 percent in 2020 representing 147,798 passengers."
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Canada has begun easing border restrictions, and fully vaccinated Americans could start traveling across the border as soon as August. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the country’s current positive path could lead to looser restrictions at the border by early September.
He also noted Canada leads G-20 countries in vaccination rates with at least 80% of eligible Canadians receiving their first shot.
Canada’s border restrictions and travel information can be found here. Currently, "foreign nationals aren’t eligible to enter Canada to visit or for tourism at this time."