Air Canada is now including complimentary COVID-19 emergency medical and quarantine insurance for eligible passengers booking round-trip international flights.

Underwritten by The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company (Manulife), the Manulife COVID-19 Emergency Medical Certificate of Insurance (the “Plan”) is available to all Canadian residents who meet its eligibility requirements. It is available for bookings made in Canada from September 17 to October 31, 2020, for travel completed by April 12, 2021. It covers every international destination Air Canada serves. Full details here

“At Air Canada, we know people have personal, family and business reasons to travel. To give them greater confidence as they do so, we have engaged Manulife to offer all Canadian residents complimentary COVID-19 emergency medical and quarantine insurance when they book round-trip flights for travel outside of Canada,” explained Lucie Guillemette, executive vice-president and chief commercial officer at Air Canada.

The Plan offers the following to the insured if they test positive for COVID-19 while abroad:

• Up to CDN $200,000 per insured for COVID-19 treatment medical expenses.
• Up to CDN $150 per person per day for quarantine costs (meals and accommodation).
• Up to CDN $300 per family per day up to a maximum of 14 days.
• Up to CDN $500 for expenses related to return home is the advisory from the Canadian government goes from Level 3 to Level 4 while at destination.

Guillemette points out that the insurance plan is the latest initiative in the carrier’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Previous initiatives include:

• Being one of the first carriers globally to require customer face coverings onboard flights.
• Being the first airline in the Americas to take customers’ temperatures prior to boarding.
• Introducing a comprehensive program, Air Canada CleanCare+, to apply industry-leading biosafety measures at each stage of the journey.
• Offering—and extending—its goodwill policy so that new bookings made up to December 31, 2020 can be changed without fees for original travel up to December 31, 2021.