Aviation

Low-cost airlines Ryanair and Malta Air won a court case Wednesday against the European Union’s decision to approve billions of euros in state aid by the French government to Air France and holding company Air France-KLM during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Southwest Airlines will pay a US$35 million fine as part of a $140 million settlement to resolve a federal investigation into a debacle in December 2022 when the airline cancelled thousands of flights and stranded more than 2 million travellers over the holidays. The US government said the assessment was the largest it has ever imposed on an airline for violating consumer protection laws.

Air Transat passengers can now purchase upgrades on the airline with Plusgrade, which gives ticket holders multiple opportunities to move up to Club Class, featuring the comfort of an exclusive cabin, plus gourmet meals and priority airport service.

Seoul, South Korea will join WestJet’s growing list of international destinations starting in May, 2024. The airline’s second transpacific connection to Asia, along with Tokyo, underpins the continued establishment of the carrier’s global hub in Calgary, say company execs.

A Russian man who flew on a plane from Denmark to Los Angeles in November without a passport or ticket told US authorities he did not remember how he got through security in Europe, according to a federal complaint filed by the FBI.

Canada has announced that it has expanded its air transport agreements with Ethiopia, Jordan, and Türkiye. The new rights under these agreements are available for use by airlines immediately and allow increased flights between Canada and each of the countries.

Air Canada has announced a significant boost to its North American network capacity for summer 2024 with the addition of two new destinations, Tulum, Mexico, and Charleston, SC. There will also be five new routes, increased flight frequencies on others, and earlier resumption of several popular seasonal routes in response to expected demand.

In a dramatic improvement over last year’s results, Transat AT Inc. showed a profit in its latest quarter, as the travel company continues to ramp up flights. CEO Annick Guerard said consumers show little sign of travel wariness, but increased competition and customer financial strain have begun to thin out profit margins even as the travel company guns for major growth next year.

Admitting that last year’s busy holiday season “highlighted several weak spots across Canada’s aviation ecosystem,” WestJet says it is gearing up across all touchpoints of its operations this year to ensure smooth travel for customers and avoid a repeat of the well-publicized delays that cast Canada’s airlines and airports in a negative light.

A Delta Airlines Flight left Amsterdam at 1.15pm on Sunday and was due to land in Detroit nine hours later.   Instead it was forced to make an emergency landing at a Canadian military base in Goose Bay Newfoundland – a town of just 8,000 – causing over 270 passengers to be stranded on the plane for hours, before spending the night in the remote military base until a replacement flight could be arranged reportedly almost 24 hours later.

Airfares look set to stabilize across key routes around the world during 2024, according to a new forecast from American Express Global Business Travel (Amex GBT), which predicts in its Air Monitor 2024 report that there will be marginal price rises on some regional and international business travel routes, but decreases on others.

Citing strong East Coast demand, Porter Airlines is increasing capacity on three Halifax routes. Beginning March 31, the Halifax-Ottawa route will have three daily, roundtrip flights, while St. John’s and Montreal will operate with two daily roundtrips, increasing to three daily in May – all operated by larger Embraer E195-E2 aircraft. 

Canada has received a C grade on flight safety and oversight – down from an A+ and far below most of its peers – according to a draft report from a United Nations agency. The confidential audit from the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) says the country has fallen precipitously to a score of 64 out of 100. Canada’s score topped 95% in the UN body’s previous report in 2005.

Air Canada has unwrapped its annual holiday video, a 1:30-minute animated spot designed “to capture the joy of reuniting with loved ones at the most wonderful time of the year.” “Once upon a Tree” is the story of two button-cute nutcracker bears who, after a year of being tucked away together, find themselves on separate sides of the tree.

The high cost of domestic air travel is largely due to the various fees the federal government charges airlines and airports, according to a Montreal Economic Institute (MEI) study released yesterday. Among the different fees that drive up ticket prices, the study focuses on three main ones: airport rents, security fees, and the fuel tax.

Air Canada has introduced a new air-to-rail booking option that allows customers to seamlessly connect at European airports to their onward journeys. With the launch of the European intermodal initiative, travellers can now, while purchasing an Air Canada flight, at the same time book their rail travel as well.

A lawyer for JetBlue Airways says that the biggest US airlines are using their size to cement their dominance in a post-pandemic world, making it critical that a federal judge allow JetBlue to buy Spirit Airlines. The lawyer, Ryan Shores, said JetBlue needs Spirit to be a “viable challenger” to the four airlines that control most of the domestic air-travel market.

Alaska Airlines has agreed to buy Hawaiian Airlines in a US$1.9 billion deal that officials of the airlines say would create a stronger company to compete with the nation’s Big Four: American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Southwest Airlines and United Airlines. It would also create a “clear leader” in the lucrative, $8 billion Hawaiian market, said Alaska CEO Ben Minicucci.

The family of a North Carolina teenager is suing American Airlines, saying that a flight attendant taped an iPhone to an airplane toilet to record her using the restroom during a September flight. Lawyers for the 14-year-old and her parents say that American “knew or should have known the flight attendant was a danger.”

Toronto Pearson International Airport says its ready for the busy winter and holiday travel season, having made a number of operational improvements at Canada’s largest airport. Among them are increased staffing, expanded de-icing capacity, newly commissioned advanced snowplows, and the implementation of cutting-edge predictive technologies for weather and delay forecasting.

Airbus has announced that Air Canada has signed a contract for the airplane manufacturer’s carbon-removal initiative. Air Canada is the first North American airline to sign up for The Airbus Carbon Capture Offer, which uses Direct Air Carbon Capture and Storage (DACCS) technology to offer airlines worldwide carbon removal credits to advance their decarbonisation goals.

WestJet is inviting Canadians to nominate a “holiday hero” – someone who will be working away from their loved ones – for the opportunity to reunite with them courtesy of the airline. The gesture is part of WestJet’s 11th annual ‘Christmas Miracle’ campaign, an initiative the company says is meant to “make the impossible possible.”

Air Canada has introduced a new feature to its mobile app that will enable customers travelling within Canada to track the progress of their baggage and mobility aid in real time at key points as it moves with them throughout their journey. The airline says the new tracking feature is designed to provide travellers with added confidence and improve the overall customer experience through greater convenience.

Citing growing interest in Latin America by Canadians, Air Transat is increasing service from Montreal to San Salvador, El Salvador, and Liberia, Costa Rica, to year-round. Previously, flights to the Central American destinations operated only during the winter season. The new services start as of May 1, 2024.

If it seems that Canadian airlines are announcing or inaugurating new routes almost every day, it’s because they are. And while that’s great news for consumers as the increased competition helps drive down fares from unprecedented peaks at the tail end of the pandemic, as one industry observer stated at a travel event in Toronto this week: “It’s like the old days – there’s too much capacity out there.”

Air Canada has earned two honours in the recently announced federal Employment Equity Achievement Awards, presented by the minister of labour. This is the fifth year that the awards are presented, and this year marks the second time that Air Canada has been recognized.

The first commercial airliner to cross the Atlantic on a purely high-fat, low-emissions fuel flew Tuesday from London to New York in a step toward achieving what supporters called “jet zero.” The Virgin Atlantic Boeing 787 flight was powered without using fossil fuels, relying on so-called sustainable aviation fuel made up largely of tallow and other waste fats.