With Sept. 27 marking World Tourism Day, and this year focussing on spreading awareness about the importance of tourism and its impact on our society, CheapOair.ca is sharing some of its favourite Old World countries that are walking the walk when it comes to embracing sustainability and environmental measures.
Eight people have been hospitalized after a JetBlue flight experienced severe turbulence as it landed in Fort Lauderdale, Florida on Monday. JetBlue flight 1256 was flying into Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport from Guayaquil, Ecuador when it suddenly experienced turbulence, the company said in a statement.
Air Canada says it has placed a firm order for 18 Boeing 787-10 Dreamliner aircraft that will be used to replace older, less efficient wide-body aircraft in its fleet. The agreement also includes options for an additional 12 Boeing 787-10 aircraft.
The union representing 11,000 Canadian pilots says a newly streamlined immigration program that looks to fill job gaps in transport fails to cut to the core of a dire labour shortage in aviation. Tim Perry, president of the Air Line Pilots Association’s Canadian chapter, says recent changes to the country’s Express Entry system may offer a temporary fix but still amount to what he calls a “Band-Aid solution” to the lack of flight crews.
While Canadians are already buying into Arajet’s message of convenient connections to the Caribbean and South and Central America through its Santo Domingo hub, the low-fare airline’s founder and CEO believes sunseekers in this country will also find the soon-to-launch Toronto and Montreal service ideal for transit to the Dominican Republic directly, whether as final destination or for two-island holidays in the Caribbean.
Transat Distribution Canada (TDC) recently welcomed travel advisors from its franchised, affiliated corporate branches and agent@home program to the network’s annual 2023 conference. Held at the Sheraton Toronto Airport hotel Sept. 16-17, the event was themed “Ride the Wave: Surf the Tides of Success.”
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.
Club Med fans will soon be able to add an African safari experience to the all-inclusive resort chain’s traditional beach and ski offerings at Club Med Tinley. Projected to open in 2026, the resort will be Club Med’s first in South Africa.
Canada has another UNESCO World Heritage Site. Tr’ondëk-Klondike, located in the homeland of Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in in the Yukon, was inscribed on the prestigious United Nations list at the recent 45th session of the World Heritage Committee in Saudi Arabia. It is the 22nd site in this country to earn the designation since Canada joined the World Heritage Convention in 1976.
Toronto and Montreal airports were near the bottom in the race for passenger satisfaction this year, according to a study by J.D. Power. The study ranks Toronto Pearson Airport second from the bottom (19th of 20) in the category for the largest airports that see more than 33 million passengers per year.
From US travel dominance to the effects of the global heatwave, a leading travel analytics firm has identified five major travel trends in global air travel this summer – revealed by an analysis of the top destinations and top origin markets compared to last year and to pre-pandemic levels in 2019.
Air Canada Vacations had agents dancing in their seats, literally, as the tour operator concluded its five-city Canadian road show/sun launch spectacle in Toronto last week, following “Dream Bigger” events in Halifax, Vancouver, Edmonton (for the first time), and Montreal.
A familiar favourite and a “best kept secret” are among new WestJet destinations from Western Canada this winter as the carrier introduces flights to Las Vegas from Victoria, BC, and Loreto, Mexico, from Calgary – the former reintroducing WestJet’s first transborder connection from Vancouver Island since 2017.
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.
Long-anticipated passenger rail service between Orlando and Miami was inaugurated Friday (Sept. 22) with the arrival of ‘Bright Pink,’ the first Brightline train, in the central Florida city. The inaugural service is the first privately funded passenger rail service over a century.
India suspended visa services in Canada last week due to a tensions between the countries; other round-up highlights include air passenger complaints in Canada hitting a peak, WestJet and Air France’s expanded codeshare partnership, Porter Toronto-Victoria service taking flight, and ACTA giving the thumbs down to the terms of government CEBA loan forgiveness for small businesses.
India’s visa processing centre in Canada suspended services Thursday as a rift widened between the countries after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told Parliament on Monday that there were “credible allegations” of Indian involvement in the assassination of Sikh independence activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar, who was gunned down in June outside the temple he led in suburban Vancouver.
VisitBritain hosted a reception for media and travel partners at the TIFF Bell Lightbox during last week’s Toronto International Film Festival. The pairing of Visit Britain and the film festival was an ideal opportunity to showcase Britain with “an awesome program, the biggest ever, with 24 productions or co-productions from the UK” said British Consul General to Toronto, Fouzia Younis.
When we say we love Italy it’s because of the way Italy and Italians make us feel when we visit. Italy punches way above its cultural weight class – good food, the Mediterranean climate, opera, the visual arts, supercar capital of the world, fashion, warm and friendly people.
The nominees for Canada’s Best New Restaurants 2023 have been unveiled by Air Canada, with 30 entries spanning 15 cities from coast-to-coast, in the running for the Top 10 announcement on Nov. 1. The list showcases the best of new Canadian cuisines and features a new group of restaurants in the longest-running Canadian restaurant awards.
Cocktails (and swank cocktail bars) are all the rage, from a new Harry Potter-themed space in London to the iconic long bar at Raffles in Singapore, home of the Singapore Sling, and thousands in between. In Toronto, near the top of the list is always the Library Bar at the Royal York Hotel.
It wasn’t that long ago that exploring remote areas of the globe could put you out of touch with the outside world for weeks. Until recently, cruises near either of the poles and even to lesser-populated islands were well out of contact for satellite services. Or, if available, they cost the price of a meal per minute. But all that is changing fast.
One wouldn’t expect to see great bands at a trade show, but give IPW credit, the signature US Travel trade event each year never fails to impress. Each year, one or more of the luncheons features a performance from a great American band, and sometimes someone will even pop up at an evening event. This year in San Antonio, the close to 5,000 delegates (yes, it’s a big lunch) were treated to Counting Crows.
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.
Venice has again escaped the tarnish of UNESCO’s list of world heritage sites in danger, drawing a victory cheer from the mayor but scorn from environmentalists and scientists alarmed by the impact of mass tourism and climate change on the storied lagoon city.
Travel Edge Network celebrated ‘Limitless’ possibilities; Trevello is planning a unique twist for its Fall regional events, F1S introduces a new CFO; Direct Travel partners with Allianz; and FlightHub earned Air Canada honours in this week’s round-up.
Airbnb says it has removed 59,000 fake listings and prevented another 157,000 from joining the platform this year. Fake listings and high cleaning fees are among several issues that Airbnb says its users highlighted in a company survey. Others included high cleaning fees and a desire for lower prices.