Passengers travelling through London Gatwick’s North Terminal will soon be able to enjoy a host of new features, as its biggest-ever transformation gets underway. Among those who will experience the £10-million refresh will be WestJet passengers flying from Canada to the British capital.
The US is requiring more planes to have accessible restrooms, but the change will take years to implement. Some new planes eventually will be required to have lavatories big enough to be accessible to wheelchair users, a change that disability advocates have sought for many years.
Scandinavian Airlines says travellers can now book seats on the carrier’s first commercial flights in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark aboard electric-powered aircraft – due to start to five years from now. The Stockholm-based SAS airline group said there will be 30 seats available on each of the three flights and that the day and place of departure will be communicated to travellers by email once decided. Online reservations opened June 2.
Last Sunday a British Airways flight ran into a catering issue when it was discovered that the catering carts were ‘not properly chilled’ making the planned in-flight meal unusable on BA252 from Turks and Caicos to London. When the plane made a scheduled stop in Nassau, the crew went into the terminal to buy KFC chicken buckets and distributed pieces to passengers in economy and business class.
Canada’s two biggest airlines saw a far higher proportion of their flights delayed than many of their American peers, according to figures from an aviation data firm. Overall, only half of Air Canada’s flights were on time between June 19 and July 16, statistics provided by Cirium reveal. In comparison, 64 percent of WestJet’s flights touched down on time.
A Delta Air Lines flight taxied around the Las Vegas airport for nearly 90 minutes in triple-digit temperatures, causing at least one person to need medical treatment. The Boeing 757 aircraft left its gate at the LAS on Monday afternoon but never left the ground. The plane taxied to the end of a runway and then turned around and returned to the terminal.
The WestJet Group has announced its winter schedule, operating 230 direct routes from Canada to the southern US, Mexico, the Caribbean and Central America this winter, while also extending key domestic and international routes from summer to year-round service.
Hail battered a Delta Air Lines passenger jet bound for New York shortly after taking off from Milan on Monday, forcing it to divert safely to Rome’s main airport, Italian media and the airline said. The aircraft sustained damage to its nose and on the fuselage near the wings, according to Italian media.
It’s estimated there are more than 41,000 airports in the world. And while it would be impossible to visit them all, British-based company Artemis Aerospace has channelled its eye-in-the-sky ethos to come up with a shortlist of six must-see runways that provide rare and beautiful vistas, guaranteeing a great start, or end, to a visitor’s journey.
Toronto’s Pearson airport says a staffing boost and other initiatives have ‘tangibly improved’ service, and issues that sparked chaos at Canada’s largest airport last summer have been addressed. And no longer is the Toronto hub rated last globally in on-time performance.
Air Canada has added a host of new features for passengers, from check-in to inflight. The upgrades include expanded in-flight food and beverage offerings, more family-friendly options in the airline’s in-flight entertainment library, as well as additional advances to the Air Canada App.
An emergency evacuation slide fell from an airliner and landed in the backyard of a home near Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport, causing no injuries but damaging a roof, officials and witnesses said.
United Airlines and the union representing its pilots say they reached agreement on a contract that will raise pilot pay by up to 40 percent over four years. The union valued the agreement at about $10 billion. It followed more than four years of tumultuous bargaining that included picketing and talk of a strike vote.
An American woman was fined after attempting to bribe a police officer at the Munich airport’s passport control over the weekend, according to German federal police. The 70-year-old was travelling from Athens to Washington with a stopover in Munich when she attempted to go through passport control without presenting a valid ID, police said.
Mexico’s armed forces are taking control of the capital’s main airport, and the government plans to give the military control of nearly a dozen more across the country as the president takes aim at corruption and mismanagement.
The Canadian Transportation Agency (CTA) has launched consultations on proposed amendments to the Air Passenger Protection Regulations (APPR) and you can help shape the outcome.
Qatar Airways reported $1.2 billion in profits over the past year, buoyed by its role in ferrying fans to the soccer World Cup. The long-haul airline said it transported 1.4 million passengers to the FIFA World Cup in Qatar. It also expanded its network to more than 160 destinations.
Appeals court judges in Amsterdam have ruled that the Dutch government can order Schiphol Airport, one of Europe’s busiest aviation hubs, to reduce the number of flights from 500,000 per year to 460,000.
Transat AT Inc. says it has sold a piece of land in Mexico to resort company Finest Resorts for US$38 million. The company says the sale is part of its plan to focus on its airline business as it tries to return to profitability after more than two years of losses.
Lynx Air is expanding service to its US network this fall, with the addition of routes from Toronto Pearson International (YYZ) to Los Angeles International (LAX) and Phoenix Sky Harbor International (PHX), as well as from Montreal Pierre Trudeau International (YUL) to Las Vegas Harry Reid International (LAS).
JetBlue says it will end a partnership with American Airlines in the Northeast US after losing a court fight over the deal and will instead focus on salvaging its proposed purchase of Spirit Airlines.The US Justice Department sued to block both the JetBlue-American deal and JetBlue’s agreement to buy Spirit for $3.8 billion on grounds that they would hurt competition.
Emirates made a landmark touchdown in Montréal this week, marking the start of scheduled daily non-stop aboard Boeing 777 services to its second gateway in Canada. Emirates now serves Canada with 14 flights per week.
PAL Airlines and Air Canada completed the inaugural PAL Airlines operation of an Air Canada Express flight between St. John’s and Halifax. The inaugural section on July 1 was the first flight operated under a newly completed commercial agreement achieved between the two carriers to fortify regional service in eastern Canada.
United Airlines says when flights are delayed or cancelled it will use its app to send customers options for rebooking and, in some cases, vouchers for meals and hotel rooms. The airline began testing the service on its app late last year and says it found that it reduced the number of people waiting in airports lines to speak to airline agents.
Nearly 2,000 Air Canada flights – roughly half of all flights – were delayed or cancelled over the Canada Day long weekend. The figures from aviation tracker FlightAware included Rouge and regional partner Jazz Aviation for the period from Saturday through Monday.
WestJet has announced the addition of the B in ABC islands of the Dutch Caribbean ¬– Bonaire – to its roster of Caribbean destinations with non-stop seasonal weekly departures from Toronto starting Dec. 12.
As United Airlines cancelled thousands of July 4th weekend flights, leaving passengers stranded in airports around the country for days, airline CEO Scott Kirby, with an inexplicable lack of judgement and no thought as to the optics or consequences, reportedly chartered a private jet from Teterboro, New Jersey, to Denver. He did this on Wednesday, the same day United cancelled 750 flights — one-quarter of the day’s schedule – not including flights on United Express. Kirby apologized Friday, saying “It was insensitive to our customers waiting to get home.” No kidding.
U.S. customs pre-clearance is coming to Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport (YTZ), but travellers bound for destinations south of the border will have to wait until 2025 to take advantage of the expedited serviced at the downtown (island) airport.
Lynx Air has announced the resignation of its President and CEO, Merren McArthur, who is leaving for personal reasons. McArthur is the founding CEO of Lynx Air, having joined the airline in June 2021, leading the airline to its first flight launch in April 2022. She will continue in the role until the end of September, allowing time for the selection and appointment of a new CEO.
Canada Jetlines says it is on schedule to add another aircraft that will allow it to fly to Europe next summer, but not before it operates “numerous charters” to Greenland this summer.