OTTAWA, ON, May 19, 2015 –  The National Airlines Council of Canada (NACC), the industry trade association representing Canada’s largest passenger air carriers, welcomes the announcement today by Citizenship and Immigration Minister Chris Alexander of the expansion of Canada’s China Transit Program.

“Increasing international connecting traffic is very important to airlines and to the health of the Canadian aviation industry in general. The NACC is pleased to see the Government of Canada taking positive strides to make it faster and easier to connect passengers and goods to destinations around the world,” said Marc-André O’Rourke, Executive Director of the NACC.

Together with the Government of Canada’s recent budget commitment to expand the upcoming Electronic Travel Authorization (eTA) program to low-risk travellers from Brazil, Mexico, Bulgaria and Romania, today’s announcement marks significant progress towards a more modern approach to facilitate the movement of travellers to and through Canada.

About the National Airlines Council of Canada

The National Airlines Council of Canada (NACC) is the trade association representing Canada’s largest national and international passenger air carriers: Air Canada, Air Transat, Jazz Aviation LP and WestJet. We promote safe, sustainable and competitive air travel through the development of policies, regulations and legislation that foster a world-class transportation system. Collectively, our member airlines carry over 50 million passengers annually, directly employ 46,000 people and create over 260,000 jobs.

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For more information, please contact:

Marc-André O’Rourke, Executive Director
National Airlines Council of Canada
Tel:  613-231-7223
morourke@airlinecouncil.ca