Canadian pilots are demanding better wages and benefits from their employers, raising financial pressure on airlines that are just starting to recover from the pandemic and creating “really tricky” conditions to keep them flying south for more lucrative jobs.
Air Canada says it has repaid about $589 million in debt that it used to buy aircraft. The company says it repaid a $462-million loan from Canada’s Export Development Corp. that it used to pay for the purchase of 14 Airbus A220-300 aircraft.
A post-pandemic surge in car traffic at Montreal-Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport this summer has led to frustration, confusion, and desperation. The city’s public transit authority has scrambled to find detours for the airport shuttle, and the company that manages the site has opened more free parking and added traffic-control staff. So far, it appears nothing has worked to ease the bottlenecks.
Passengers aren’t the only ones feeling cramped these days. Though Canadian flights have long been dominated by Air Canada and WestJet, the emergence of newer carriers including Flair Airlines and Lynx Air has shaken up the sector, injecting fresh competition to a once-complacent market.
President Joe Biden will nominate a former Obama administration official to lead the Federal Aviation Administration after his first choice withdrew in the face of Republican opposition nearly six months ago. The FAA, which regulates airline safety and manages the nation’s airspace, has been run by back-to-back acting administrators since March 2022.
Canada’s public health agency says it’s investigating a recent incident involving a vomit-smeared airplane seat. On Tuesday, Air Canada said it apologized to two passengers who were escorted off the plane by security after protesting that their seats were soiled – and still damp – ahead of an Aug. 26 flight from Las Vegas to Montreal.
The Mexican government ordered Mexico City’s old international airport (MEX) to cut flights by 17% sparking warnings by airlines of possible mass flight cancellations. The new rules scheduled to take effect by Oct. 29 would require the terminal to reduce the number of flights per hour at the airport from 52 to 43.
A new, year-round route between Montreal and Madrid will launch next May as part of Air Canada’s expanded international summer 2024 flying schedule. The airline plans to operate 100 percent of its peak summer 2019 trans-Atlantic capacity next year, taking full advantage of the robust recovery in its largest international market.
The boss of Australian airline Qantas said Tuesday he would leave his job immediately – two months earlier than planned – following a series of embarrassing revelations about the company, including allegations it sold tickets for flights that had already been cancelled.
The US federal government is fining American Airlines $4.1 million for dozens of instances in which passengers were kept on board planes without a chance to exit during long ground delays. The Department of Transportation said it is the largest such fine against an airline since rules covering long ground delays took effect about a decade ago.
Air Canada is eliminating six major routes out of Calgary this winter, in part due to an industry-wide pilot shortage. The airline will no longer offer non-stop flights from Calgary to Ottawa, Halifax, Los Angeles, Honolulu, Cancun, or Frankfurt as of the end of October.
Dubai International Airport, the world’s busiest for international travel, announced it served 41.6 million passengers in the first half of this year — exceeding figures for the same period in 2019 as travellers return to the air after the lockdowns of the coronavirus pandemic.
The union representing pilots at Jazz Aviation claims that their employer and Air Canada have breached the Canada Labour Code, even as it ratified changes to their collective agreement. Jazz, a subsidiary of Chorus Aviation Inc., provides regional service for the country’s biggest airline under the Air Canada Express brand.
Thousands of airline passengers faced delays on Monday after Britain’s air traffic control system was hit by a breakdown that slowed takeoffs and landings across the UK on one of the busiest travel days of the year.
Canada Jetlines has released an expanded winter flight schedule featuring service between Toronto and Montego Bay, Jamaica, and Orlando – in addition to enhancement to existing services to Cancun and Las Vegas.
Starting in November, Porter Airlines is launching daily service from Toronto to five Florida destinations: Fort Lauderdale (FLL), Fort Myers (RSW), Miami (MIA), Orlando (MCO), and Tampa (TPA); as well as two destinations – FLL and MCO – from Ottawa.
It was disclosed last week that Spirit Airlines has agreed to pay US $8.25 million to settle a class-action lawsuit over its bag fees. The airline was sued by passengers who booked their trips through third-party travel sites between 2011-17.
Chad Blewett is pilot on the Boeing 737 Max for Air Canada, and one of the airline’s first Inuit captains. Here is his first-person account of returning to his home in Yellowknife to help evacuate residents as wildfires threatened the town.
Flair Airlines CEO Stephen Jones says his budget carrier is at last running a smooth operation propelled by high passenger numbers, despite “growing pains” at the debt-laden company that’s still striving to gain consumer confidence.
American Airlines is suing a travel website that sells tickets that let people save money by exploiting a quirk in airline pricing. American sued Skiplagged Inc. in US federal court in Fort Worth, Texas, accusing the website of deception. It threatened to cancel every ticket that Skiplagged has sold.
Building on strong bookings this summer, US airlines are already adding new routes later this year and next, underscoring the airline industry’s confidence that its strong recovery from the pandemic will continue and that planes will remain packed.
Flair Airlines says it is launching a unique pilot training program that will see applicants placed in the cockpit of one of the company’s Boeing 737 jets within 18 months.
Airlines are adjusting prices and adding capacity to help with evacuation efforts in Yellowknife. WestJet and Air Canada both said they are taking steps to avoid elevated prices, adding extra flights and swapping in bigger planes amid the rapidly unfolding situation up north.
WestJet announced the addition of twice-weekly non-stop service between Kelowna and Toronto to the airline’s 2023/24 winter schedule. The service will begin Nov. 5.
Preparatory construction works for the new terminal at Montreal Saint-Hubert Airport has begun, but airport officials maintain that “at no time” will be the operation of the airport will be compromised or affected.
Two years after the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, the United States has begun easing rules that could allow commercial airlines to fly over the country in routes that cut time and fuel consumption for East-West travel.
Air Canada says earnings last quarter reached heights not seen since before the COVID-19 pandemic amid high travel demand and pricier fares, and despite thousands of flight delays.
A new report says Air Canada ranked last in on-time performance among the 10 largest airlines in North America, as some carriers in Canada struggle to find their post-pandemic footing despite much better outcomes than the travel chaos of 2022.
Virgin Galactic rocketed to the edge of space with its first tourists Thursday, including a former British Olympian who bought his ticket 18 years ago and a mother-daughter duo from the Caribbean.
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) announced that the post-COVID recovery momentum continued in June for passenger markets with total traffic (measured in revenue passenger kilometres or RPKs) rising 31.0% compared to June 2022. Globally, traffic is now at 94.2% of pre-COVID levels.