(OTTAWA) An initiative announced in April by the federal government to provide Ukrainians fleeing war with free flights to Canada has so far resulted in only 800 people registering for the benefit, a tiny fraction of the promised 10,000 tickets.
Posted at 2:13 p.m.
A first round of registration for these flights paid for with donations of Aeroplan points was launched in June for 500 Ukrainians. Since then, the organization responsible for the logistics of the program, Miles4Migrants, only opened registration to 300 additional people, earlier this week. Of the 500 Ukrainians registered in the first round of 500 seats, 385 were able to book their flights, the charity told The Canadian Press.
Miles4Migrants has indicated that it plans to make 300 new tickets available every two weeks and that it intends to maintain this rate in the short term. Asked to indicate when it intends to open registrations to a greater number of people, the organization did not respond.
We believe that making 300 tickets available every two weeks will enable us to provide the best passenger experience, based on our existing resources.
Andy Freedman, co-founder of Miles4Migrants, in a written statement
“We hope to increase this number in the future based on factors such as the end of the summer travel season, increased flight availability and proper travel documentation for passengers,” Freedman added.
Asked that only 300 people can register every two weeks rather than 500 in the first round in June, Miles4Migrants said that they had reduced the number after having “learned a lot about the operational process and the effort required to manage the booking of flights from [chacun] individually”.
Miles4Migrants is handling the logistics of an Ottawa-announced partnership with Air Canada and charities such as the Shapiro Foundation. The initiative aims to finance, through a fundraising in Aeroplan points and cash, the air transport of 10,000 Ukrainians wishing to reach Canada.
Only Ukrainian nationals who already have a permit to stay in Canada, such as under the Canada-Ukraine Emergency Travel Authorization (CUATU), are eligible.
AVUCU offers three-year temporary residency in Canada to Ukrainians and their immediate family members. According to the most recent data published by the federal government, 276,338 people have received a residence permit under this program.
Also according to Ottawa statistics, just over 67,600 Ukrainians have arrived in Canada since last January. They were able to make their own way while approximately 900 nationals were able to board three flights chartered by Justin Trudeau’s government.