Some 16,500 Air Canada employees who were laid off because of the Covid-19 pandemic will be rehired under a government relief package for businesses, the airline said in a statement.

Air Canada furloughed nearly half of its Canada-based workforce of 36,000 on March 30 as the country imposed travel restrictions and people stopped flying.

The Canadian government stepped in April 1 with the emergency wage subsidy plan designed to help employers keep their workers or bring back ones that were laid off because of the pandemic.

Air Canada said that under the "CEWS" relief package it will bring back the people it had furloughed.

"Subject to its adoption into law substantially as announced, Air Canada intends to adopt the CEWS for the benefit of its 36,000 Canadian-based employee workforce," the company said in a statement.