Air Canada’s pilot strike was settled – or was it? In a big week of news last week, ACTA also revealed foundational shifts in the retail travel industry, a new Explora Journeys vessel set sail, Flair flew to Guadalajara, Mexico, for the first time, and a eminent travel agent in this country announced retirement plans.
A new proposal from the country’s transport regulator would charge airlines $790 for each passenger complain it resolves – regardless of which party wins the dispute. The Canadian Transportation Agency (CTA) has launched a one-month consultation on the proposed reforms, which would apply to valid customer complaints processed and settled by the regulator.
Ariella Kimmel and Mandi Johnson were grabbing a bite to eat in Vienna, when their August trip to the Austrian capital was upended. The Canadian duo had travelled to the city to see Taylor Swift in concert only to learn her shows would be cancelled because of two men plotting to launch an attack on fans outside the venue, Ernst Happel Stadium.
At YVR, removing laptops and liquids from your carry-on at security is a thing of the past, thanks to a fresh use of half-century-old technology. Vancouver is the first flight hub in the country to deploy CT scanners in a bid to detect explosives and other threats, according to CATSA. And the agency plans to install the technology, which provides 360-degree views via computerized X-ray imaging, at airport checkpoints across the country in the coming years.
To mark its 100th anniversary this year, the Louisbourg Lighthouse, which stands at the same location as the first lighthouse in Canada originally built in Cape Breton in 1734, has revealed a full refurbishment designed to help the historic structure on for another century
Low entry-level pay in the tentative deal between Air Canada and its pilots could be a stumbling block ahead of a union vote on the agreement, some aviators and experts say. While the tentative agreement’s cumulative 42 percent wage hike over four years applies to all flight crew – a big topline gain after a decade of two per cent annual raises – many could still feel left out of the windfall.
The Travel Industry Council of Ontario has posted a closure advisory, including claims protocols, for Canada Jetlines, which ceased operations on Aug. 15, and was declared bankrupt on Sept. 11, 2024. On the same date, Canada Jetlines Vacations terminated its TICO registrations.
On a day that was “all about RIU,” close to 125 senior managers and executives from across the Sunwing Travel Group convened Tuesday with RIU Hotels & Resorts execs to learn the latest from one of the Canadian travel company’s most important partners.
Goway has reinvigorated its product line to Northern Europe with the introduction of 14 new itineraries across Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden. The tour company says its new tours showcase the depth of experiences available in the Nordic nations, from beautiful city centres to magnificent natural settings, including the fjords and the Arctic Circle.
The US Federal Aviation Administration is investigating after a Delta Air Lines flight with cabin pressure issues left some passengers with bleeding eardrums, headaches and bloody noses. The flight was travelling Sunday from Salt Lake City to Portland, Oregon, when pilots of the five-year-old Boeing 737-900ER aircraft noticed a pressurization problem and made an emergency landing back in Utah’s capital, according to the flight log.
Disney Vacation Club will begin offering a new opportunity to call Disney’s Polynesian Villas & Bungalows “home” with the addition of the new Island Tower, opening in Orlando on Dec. 17. Sales will open to current Disney Vacation Club members on Oct. 1 and the public on Oct. 29.
Move over Baby Boomers, you’re not the belle of the travel ball any longer. That status will be usurped by Millennials (people born between 1981 and 1996), who are forecast to be the most active travel demographic in 2025. However, it’s the former who still hold the purse strings, according to data presented by ACTA at the association’s travel summit last week in Toronto.
The worst flooding in years moved Tuesday across a broad swath of Central Europe, taking lives and destroying homes. Heavy flooding has affected a large part of the region in recent days, including the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania, and Austria. Other places braced for the worst yet to come, including two Central European gems: Budapest, the Hungarian capital on the Danube River, and Wroclaw, a city in southwestern Poland on the Oder River, which boasts a Gothic cathedral and other historic landmarks.
The Ritz-Carlton has opened its newest hotel, the Ritz-Carlton Rabat, Dar Es Salam, a palatial oasis located a few minutes from the historic centre of Morocco’s capital, and set within 440 hectares of forest and lush gardens adjacent to Royal Golf Dar Es Salam.
When polar bears started coming to Churchill, tourists did too. And then suddenly, polar bears began to appear everywhere – from artwork to cushion covers and even on beer cans – as residents of this remote Manitoba town on Hudson Bay embraced their title as polar bear capital of the world.
With its reindeer sleigh rides, camel racing and stunning landscapes with room to roam – not to mention status as the legendary land of Genghis Khan – Mongolia has launched a new tourism campaign it hopes will woo visitors who are truly looking to get away from it all.
Anna Nash has joined Explora Journeys as President of the luxury lifestyle ocean travel brand of the MSC Group reporting directly to Pierfrancesco Vago, Executive Chairman, MSC Group’s Cruise Division.
Canada’s travel retail landscape is changing dramatically – so much so that ACTA is preparing a significant report due in October detailing a foundational shift in the industry that includes higher wages for employed agents, but new ones being hired as sole proprietors (aka independent agents).
Politics, public opinion, and salary hikes south of the border helped push Air Canada toward a deal that secures major wage gains for pilots, experts say. The tentative agreement includes an “unheard of” 42 percent wage hike over four years, according to one source who was not authorized to speak publicly on the matter.
Mike Foster, a tireless advocate for travel advisors in this country who built one of Southern Ontario’s largest agencies, says he is retiring, including stepping down at the end of the year from his position as President of Nexion Travel Group-Canada.
Visit Orlando, along with its theme parks, attractions, hotels and transportation partners, will bring the Orlando Canadian Sunshine Tour to Ottawa (Oct. 9) and Montreal (Oct. 10) this fall.
Germany on Monday began random checks at its borders with five Western European nations as it seeks to crack down on irregular migration, expanding a system of mobile border controls that are already in place at four other borders. However, a return to a past system with closed borders and mandatory border checks for every person crossing the border is not in the cards.
Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris is getting its bells back, just in time for the medieval landmark’s reopening following a devastating 2019 fire. A convoy of trucks bearing eight restored bells – the heaviest of which weighs more than four tons – pulled into the huge worksite surrounding the monument late last week on an island in the Seine River.
Travellers, business groups and politicians – and the travel industry! – are feeling relief after Air Canada and the union representing thousands of its pilots negotiated a new labour deal and averted a disruptive, countrywide shutdown. The airline announced shortly after midnight Sunday that it had reached a tentative, four-year collective agreement with the Air Line Pilots Association.
Shanghai’s airports were cancelling hundreds of flights as Typhoon Bebinca made landfall in the early hours of Monday morning. The strongest typhoon to hit Shanghai since at least 1949 flooded roads with water and broken tree branches, knocked out power to some homes as it swept over the financial hub Monday.
Despite losing nearly $40 million in its third quarter ending July 31, Transat AT CEO Annick Guérard says the company is moving away from its disruptions earlier in the year with flight attendants labour negotiations, and that next year will be more “stable” than 2024.
ACTA held its Eastern Canada regional summit in Toronto last week. And besides a full slate of news, education and a Grand Trade show, the association celebrated excellence and innovation, and outstanding achievements and remarkable contributions in the Canadian travel industry, with a number of member awards. They included the well-known Louise Gardner of Kitchener, Ont. for her advocacy (banner photo, centre).
Intrepid Travel is encouraging agents to be a “change champion” when it comes to sustainability and has issued a new handbook – ‘How to be a champion of change: An agent’s guide to understanding sustainable travel’ – to help.
Despite the focus on Air Canada and its pilots, the rest of the travel world continued to turn last week, and we offer a synopsis of news from the realms of hotels and resorts, cruising, events, FAMs, destinations and much more.
Air Canada and business leaders – including the Canadian Association of Travel Agencies and Travel Agents (ACTA) – are asking Ottawa to be ready to intervene in labour talks with its pilots as time is running out before a potential shutdown. But so far, the government has said the two sides need to work things out.