Air Canada: No more crew layovers in downtown Winnipeg

[The Bread Guy]

This city's core area is so dangerous and riddled with crime that Canada's largest airliner is no longer allowing its pilots and flight crew to stay in downtown hotels during layovers.

In a rare move, Air Canada has issued a bulletin to its flight crews saying staff will no longer be staying at the Radisson Hotel downtown due to increasing concerns over violent crime in the area.

Flight crews will now stay at the Sandman Hotel near James Armstrong Richardson International Airport.

"Instances of public intoxication, resulting in several downtown locations being susceptible to crimes of violence and opportunity, have been observed by local police," the Sept. 23 bulletin says. "Based on concern generated by crew reports, corporate security, and keeping in mind our obligation, to the extent possible, for ensuring the safety of layover locations, a decision has been made to relocate."

And they won't be back for at least 12 months, or until the crime problem in downtown "improves," the bulletin says ....

QMI/Sun Media, 1 Oct 11

 

[The Bread Guy]

Air Canada says it never meant to offend anyone in a memo about the airline's decision to stop using downtown Winnipeg hotels for crew layovers.

"It appears certain inferences are being drawn from the contents of a recent internal bulletin relating to accommodation for flight crews on overnight layover in Winnipeg," Peter Fitzpatrick said Monday in an email to The Canadian Press.

"Air Canada wishes to state categorically it had no intent to cause offence to any individual or group and apologizes if it inadvertently did so."

The internal bulletin said employees will be staying at a hotel closer to the airport because of security concerns downtown and noted that 1,000 displaced people from rural Manitoba are staying in hotels in Winnipeg's core.

"Instances of public intoxication, resulting in several downtown locations being susceptible to crimes of violence and opportunity, have been observed by local police," the bulletin said.

Many of the displaced are from First Nations that were flooded last spring ....

The Canadian Press, 3 Oct 11 - no copy of the news release available yet as of this post at Air Canada's News Release page