Edmonton International Airport (YEG) will be completing infrastructure upgrades to the Departures Roadway on Level Two starting today (Sept. 26), which will close the elevated roadway and require relocation of the passenger pick-up and drop-off areas. During the construction period, the Departures Roadway adjacent to the terminal will be temporarily closed to all traffic.
Air Transat is looking ahead to its next generation of pilots with the launch of a new cadet training program that will enable the airline to build a pipeline of qualified pilots, with applications being accepted now for training beginning in February 2024.
The global push to decarbonize the aviation sector by 2050 will lead to a major increase in ticket prices unless governments step in to offer support, WestJet CEO Alexis von Hoensbroech warned this week. Von Hoensbroech made the comments Tuesday at the 24th World Petroleum Congress, a major international oil-and-gas conference being held in Calgary this week.
The Walt Disney Co. has “new stories to tell” its fans and is planning to invest approximately $60 billion into its theme parks and cruise lines over the next decade to do so. The company said in a regulatory filing on Tuesday that its planned investment – “accelerated and expanded” – is nearly double what it spent in the prior 10-year period.
Porter Airlines inaugurated service in Victoria, BC, Wednesday with daily flights between Toronto Pearson Airport representing another link in the growing network of routes the airline has introduced this year with its new Embraer E195-E2 aircraft.
Pilots and aircraft assembly workers are among the first professionals to be invited by the Canadian government to take advantage of a new Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada policy designed to address labour shortages in the country. The move comes as That smaller Canadian airlines plan to add more than 50 planes to their fleets in the next two years, while Air Canada and WestJet are also bulking up.
Starting Sept. 25, a newly expanded codeshare agreement with Air France will enable WestJet passengers to access 31 additional cities across 11 European countries via Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport (CDG). Previously, WestJet and Air France’s code share agreement included 22 destinations through CDG, all of which will be maintained as the number of onward destinations in Europe now grows to 53.
The United States Federal Aviation Administration has returned Mexico’s aviation safety rating to the highest level two years after downgrading it. The change will allow Mexican airlines to add new routes to the US, and US airlines will once again be able to sell tickets on Mexican airline-operated flights.
The CEO of WestJet says the company is non-partisan and will revisit its policy after the airline faced backlash for allowing Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre to speak on the PA system on a recent flight. The union representing WestJet cabin crew demanded an apology from the airline over the incident. However, speaking in Vancouver Thursday, Poilievre says he was asked multiple times by the cabin crew to speak and the Union should be the one apologizing.
SWISS is set to expand its route network in its 2024 summer schedules, adding two new long-haul destinations – including Toronto – to be served from Zurich. Its intercontinental network will also see the addition of Washington, DC, while its European network will feature new services to Košice in Slovakia and Cluj-Napoca in Romania.
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.