Air Canada is Canada has announced plans to suspend flights at several airports in Atlantic Canada, and also one route in British Columbia.

Effective Jan. 11, Air Canada is suspending all flights in Sydney, N.S., and Saint John, N.B., until further notice. A spokesman said Vancouver-Penticton flights also will be suspended.

"We continue to experience significantly reduced traffic due to COVID-19, ongoing travel restrictions and quarantine rules, low seasonal demand and the termination of the travel bubble," Air Canada said in a statement. "As a result, we are suspending until further notice all passenger operations to Sydney, Nova Scotia and Saint-John, New-Brunswick, beginning January 11.

"This represents a small subset of the 95 previously planned suspensions disclosed at (the) time of our third quarter results."

Air Canada spokesman Peter Fitzpatrick told TravelPulse Canada that Vancouver-Penticton flights also are being suspended.

"This decision was not taken lightly, and we regret the impact on our customers and community partners, but it is increasingly difficult to continue to operate in this challenging environment, without specific financial support from government, with whom continue to wait for negotiations to start," airline officials said. "Air Canada is still carrying less than eight per cent of its normal passenger volumes due to factors beyond our control and with no horizon for recovery."

In addition to the above-mentioned cuts, Air Canada is temporarily suspending the following services in Atlantic Canada:

Deer Lake- Halifax

Fredericton-Toronto

Charlottetown-Toronto

Halifax-Ottawa

The decision to suspend operations in Sydney will have an "absolutely catastrophic" effect on Cape Breton Island, the CEO of Sydney's airport said following the announcement.

In a story posted on the CBC website, Mike MacKinnon called the airline's move "a massive blow" to the J.A. Douglas McCurdy Sydney Airport, which was already struggling to survive during a pandemic that has brought air travel to a near standstill.

"Our airport has been repeatedly slashed by air service cuts ever since the pandemic began and now this announcement, on top of the recent WestJet route suspensions, is effectively the final nail in the coffin for air service to/from our community for the foreseeable future," MacKinnon said in a press release.

WestJet in November indefinitely suspended 100 weekly flights in Atlantic Canada; roughly 80% of its capacity in the region. Air Canada in June pulled out of eight regional airports (two in Atlantic Canada) and suspended 30 domestic routes, 14 of them in Atlantic Canada.

The Atlantic Canada Airports Association issued a release on its website.

"The second wave of COVID-19 infections is piling added pressure on a sector on the verge of collapse," the ACAA stated. "Station closures are the worst-case scenario for some of our region’s smaller airports, and the result will further fracture the viability of people who need to efficiently move in and out of these communities.

"The cumulative impact of air carrier service reductions is bigger than a blow to our region; we could be looking at the end of some of our small regional airports if solutions are not found."