Charter Middle East Evacuation Flights for Canadians Coming Soon, Minister Says

Under pressure to help bring home thousands of Canadians stranded by war in the Middle East, Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand says the government is arranging charter flights that could take place within the next 72 hours.

“The situation is volatile and changing by the hour,” she said at a last-minute news conference on Wednesday evening reported on by CBC News.

“In some countries, the airspace is open. In others it is partially open and still others it is fully closed.”

Anand said that as of Wednesday morning, more than 2,000 Canadians in the region have requested government assistance to get home. She told the news conference that Canada has asked to use United Arab Emirates airspace for chartered evacuation flights.

That’s where the majority of Canadians who have asked for assistance – close to 1,200 – are currently located.

“This afternoon, I directed my officials to enter into contracts to charter flights for Canadians. This charter is contingent upon receiving the necessary approvals from the government of the U.A.E. to use their airspace, which we have already requested,” Anand said. 

She said flights will be available on “a cost-recovery basis,” and that the government is also trying to block seats on commercial flights, which are currently extremely limited.

For more than 200 Canadians in Qatar, there are currently no options to fly out, but Qatar Airlines is arranging bus transfers to airports in Saudi Arabia for Canadians with existing tickets.

Some Canadians have been able to fly out of Lebanon, but more remain.

Minister Anand said about 100 Canadians have requested assistance in getting home from Israel. “For the moment, the government of Israel is operating a bus service to Egypt where passengers can arrange on onward travel to airports that are open and operating normally,” she said.  More on Israel’s efforts to repatriate visitors can be found here.

The number of Canadians requesting assistance out of the region is far lower than the more than 100,000 in the Middle East and Gulf states have registered with Global Affairs Canada. 

Anand said Canadians in the Middle East who haven’t done so already should register with the Registration of Canadians Abroad (ROCA) service.