Aviation

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.

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.

Air France has inaugurated its new non-stop flight between Paris-Charles de Gaulle and Ottawa, making the carrier the only company to operate direct flights between the Canadian capital and Europe.

Porter Airlines continues to expand its presence in Western Canada with the addition of Victoria to its network with one daily roundtrip flight as of September 20. Victoria is the second city in British Columbia that Porter will serve with its new 132-seat Embraer E195-E2 aircraft, which the airline touts as having the lowest fuel consumption per seat and per trip among its class.

As if tech issues, labour shortages and weather aren’t enough, flights south of the border could be disrupted starting next week because some planes lack updated equipment to prevent interference from transmissions by wireless companies.

Low-cost Icelandic airline PLAY launched its inaugural flight from Canada June 22, with the carrier aiming to offer another competitive alternative for Canadians to fly to Europe via its Reykjavik hub.

WestJet CEO Alexis von Hoensbroech says bringing Swoop and Sunwing Airlines under its banner won’t lead to higher airfares, since integrating the discount carriers will also tamp down costs.

The federal government moved this week to bolster accountability at airports, introducing new legislation that would compel them and other operators to cough up more information on their performance.

With news swirling this week about the future integration of Sunwing Airlines into the WestJet fleet, the company’s tour operator arm is reassuring the trade that it’s “business as usual” and that the future is “brighter than ever.”

Kwasi Bandoh, a senior recruiter for an airline, stood before a group of aviation mechanic students at their graduation ceremony last month and congratulated them for all having jobs. As some of the students began nudging each other, Bandoh realized that perhaps not every one of them had already been hired.

Experts seemingly disagree whether WestJet’s decision to shut down Sunwing Airlines and fold it into its main operations could mean less service and higher fares – or whether the Competition Bureau, competitors, and savvy consumers will ensure that fares stay competitive.

WestJet says it will wind down Sunwing Airlines and integrate the carrier into its mainline business within two years as part of a strategy to streamline operations.
However WestJet said its “immediate focus” remains on weaving Swoop into the company’s operations.

The oneworld airline alliance says it has completed initial trials of a state-of-the-art booking tool that leverage artificial intelligence (AI) to help users navigate the complex process of planning a “Round the World” ticket.

U.S. officials says they will require new airline planes to have a second barrier to make it harder for passengers to break into the cockpit when the main door is open. The Federal Aviation Administration rule will apply to commercial planes made after mid-2025.

Overall, flying will be far more expensive this summer, according to corporate travel manager American Express Global Business Travel (Amex GBT), which analyzed tens of thousands of client transactions on flights to and from Canadian destinations. However, amid the soaring prices, flights to Western Canada are bucking the trend.

Sabre and Air Canada have announced the completion of a new multi-year distribution agreement that provides Sabre-connected agencies with long-term access to Air Canada’s full content via NDC channels.

Lawmakers south of the border are considering rolling back an Obama-era rule that requires airlines to show the total price of a ticket upfront in advertising, while also tweaking training requirements for airline pilots and making other changes in a massive bill covering the Federal Aviation Administration.

WestJet will wind down its Swoop subsidiary by late October as it integrates the budget carrier’s operations into its main banner, the airline said Friday. The move comes after pilots with the two airlines ratified a new collective agreement that brings them onto a level pay scale.

Air Canada says it made a mistake in rejecting some compensation claims from the thousands of travellers affected by delayed flights due to computer malfunctions. In messages to some customers, the airline initially said the information technology fumble was out of its hands, relieving it of obligations to pay them compensation.