A Winnipeg businessman with family in Lebanon says he’s been in close contact with relatives as tensions escalate in the Middle East.
The federal government has warned Canadians in Lebanon to get out of the region while there are still commercial flights available.
Abdo El Tassi told 680 CJOB’s The Start that he talks to family daily, and that they’re safe so far.
“Everybody is worried. Nobody likes to see war,” El Tassi said.
“We are worried, but really where my family is … it’s far from the trouble area — 70 kilometres away.”
Fears that escalating tensions between Israel and Hezbollah could spiral into a broader regional conflict have already led to the Canadian government pulling children of diplomats out of Tel Aviv, and several airlines already cancelling or altering flights.
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“My sister is there, she’s a Canadian. She goes in the summer there and she comes back. I asked her, ‘Should you be leaving right away?'” El Tassi said.
“She said, ‘I’m not worried, everything’s going to be OK.’
Former Air Canada executive Duncan Dee told The Start that there are a number of factors when airlines decide to cancel flights to areas experiencing conflict.
“The process generally involves looking at government sources of information — those advisories that you see from Global Affairs Canada about the Canadian travellers in that region,” he said.
“(There are) a number of other considerations, including the insurance company — speaking to insurers to ensure that both aircraft and crews that end up operating in these environments are still covered.”
The biggest problems airlines face in these situations, Dee said, involve travellers already overseas who need to come home.
“Airlines do have a responsibility, whether it’s a legal or a moral responsibility, to bring the folks that they brought to the region back to where they travelled from,” he said.
“In those cases, it becomes a little bit more complicated, and airlines try to get those people home through other means — if there are airlines still operating or in some cases, special flights.”
In the case of travellers who haven’t made their trip yet, airlines will refund them.