TORONTO - The Toronto Blue Jays expect to learn Tuesday if their revised travel plan for an upcoming road trip receives approval from authorities amid a dispute between Canada and the United States over charter airline flights.
The new itinerary filed Friday calls for the team to fly directly to Detroit on Thursday instead of Windsor, Ont., before continuing on to New York and St. Petersburg, Fla. The Blue Jays open a four-game series versus the Tigers on Friday before playing two games against the Yankees and three with the Rays.
It was the stop in Windsor that got them in trouble with new Transport Canada rules, which prevent American charter companies from making multiple stops in Canada before heading south. The regulations were a response to U.S. Department of Transportation regulations that put similar limitations on Canadian charters.
The Blue Jays appear to be the first Canadian sports franchise caught up in the standoff, although travel secretary Mike Shaw believes the club's charter company, Miami Air, has figured out its way around the mess.
"We could not fly on an American charter from a Canadian site to a Canadian site," Shaw said Monday. "Under the new guidelines, we've refiled to fly from Toronto to Detroit and we're hoping that everything will be approved (Tuesday). Worst-case scenario we'll have to bus to Detroit and hopefully it's rectified before we fly home."
The initial plan to land in Windsor, which was made to ease the logistics of heading to Detroit, apparently also created issues for the team's final road trip to Boston and Baltimore starting Sept. 28.
Both itineraries had initially been approved but became problematic once the issue arose.
"Maybe they said that because of the issue with Windsor and they tied it all together," said Shaw. "We just want to get final clarification that we're going to be allowed to (take the final road trip)."
If the matter remains unresolved, the new restrictions will create many travel headaches for NHL teams and the NBA's Toronto Raptors in their upcoming seasons.
