The Air Canada logo is seen on a hangar at Vancouver International Airport, in Richmond, B.C., on Friday, March 20, 2020. A union official says Air Canada is laying off more than 5,000 flight attendants as the country's largest airline cuts routes and parks planes due to the coronavirus. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck
March 20, 2020 - 2:41 PM
MONTREAL - Air Canada says it will bring Canadians stranded in Morocco back home on a repatriation flight this weekend in collaboration with the federal government.
CEO Calin Rovinescu says the carrier is "working around the clock" with Ottawa to return residents to Canadian soil.
The airline says the 450-seat aircraft will take off from Casablanca and touch down in Montreal on Saturday.
Thousands of Canadians abroad continue to struggle to find a way back, with some stranded as borders close and airlines cut flights due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
McGill University earth sciences professor Anthony Williams-Jones and five students, who were on a geological field trip to Morocco, managed to get out of the country on Wednesday after a three-day delay, but now find themselves stuck in London, U.K. Canada has shut its borders to travellers who are not citizens or permanent residents, including international students.
Williams-Jones says he is "outraged" at the situation, in part because the Canadian embassy in Morocco seemed to suggest that their flight from Casablanca last Sunday would not depart when in fact it did, he says.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 20, 2020.
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News from © The Canadian Press, 2020