Travellers rushing to cancel, and travel industry reeling, from new COVID-19 restrictions

Last flights leave Montreal After the Canadian government announced severe travel restrictions, the last airplanes to sunny destinations left Montreal on Saturday.

Montreal — Travel agent Christine Latremoille says today was a quiet one -- until exactly 11:07 a.m.

That's when her clients got wind of Prime Minister Trudeau's planned press conference to announce new travel restrictions, and particularly a new supervised hotel quarantine.

"There are people who do not want to have to do this mandatory hotel quarantine," Latremoille said.

The hotel stay will last at least three days, at a cost of about $2,000, until people get the results of airport COVID-19 tests, according to the new system announced Friday.

The start date hasn't yet been announced, but travellers are scrambling to get home, Latremoille said.

"Quarantining at home with your family or your pets, or your work ability and your laptop, et cetera, is an entirely different thing than being escorted directly to a hotel," she said.

As for cancelling flights to the Caribbean and Mexico until the end of April, the federal government's other main new measure, Latremoille said that's going to be economically the last straw for many.

"I think that this is, for the industry, the final nail in the coffin at least for the next few months and that has many of us deeply concerned. We were already there but there are new adjectives for the levels of concern," she said.

People are only travelling a fraction of the normal amount, with pre-booked spring and early summer trips down 95 per cent from last year, she said.

People in the industry are hoping that the new round of rules comes with financial support.

CLIP - LOUIS-ERIC MONGRAIN - PILOT

"Every aviation worker right now, we're struggling, but the greatest concern is whether or not our employer will survive this crisis," said pilot Louis-Eric Mongrain.

"Zero flights doesn't mean zero expenses. For instance, an aircraft lease can go up to $1 million a month. Some airlines have 100 airplanes."

Another thing that would help, he said -- to implement a functional rapid-testing strategy in the next three months, while things are even quieter than usual. That would help get the industry back on its feet, safely, as soon as possible, he said.