Accusations and lawsuits flew last week from Flair Airlines after four of its planes were seized due to over-due lease payments; Canada Jetlines and Qatar Airways considered a collaboration; Brazil blamed Canada for its re-imposition of visas; China finally re-opened its borders to tourists; and a popular Canadian tourism figure announced her retirement.
With Metro Vancouver set to host FIFA World Cup of soccer games in 2026, the city will see the first effects of an epic capacity crisis that will ultimately require the city to add 20,000 hotel rooms by 2050 to meet expected demand.
Stéphanie Bishop is retiring after four decades in the travel industry, the last 15 year as managing director of the Globus family of brands’ Toronto office. The popular Bishop is set to depart the company in May, leaving a new hand-selected leadership team to oversee Canada’s sales, marketing, and finances for Globus, Cosmos, and Avalon Waterways.
St Patrick’s Day in Ireland isn’t just a celebration of the patron saint, it’s also a demonstration of the pride of being Irish and a source of joy that helps to kick off the spring season. Around the world it might be all green beer, dressing up like leprechauns and donning ‘kiss me I’m Irish’ hats – but it’s not quite like that if you live in Ireland.
Carnival Cruise Line has 100 million reasons to celebrate after announcing that it has achieved a major milestone for the industry as the first cruise line to embark 100 million guests since its first sailing. Carnival President Christine Duffy visited Carnival Sunrise today as guests boarded the ship at PortMiami, where the cruise line was founded, to thank them for choosing fun since 1972.
Despite inflation Canadians are still itching to travel – but that doesn’t mean that travellers don’t want to get the best bang for their buck, or do their utmost to avoid potential delays that can disrupt or taint their trip.
Belfast’s first distillery in a century will soon open its doors in a historic converted prison, courtesy of the Belfast Distillery Co., which is on a “mission” to bring whiskey distilling back to the Northern Irish city.
Imagine managing floating cities full of different restaurants and having to plan shopping lists for what diners are going to be ordering a year from now. That’s the challenge facing cruise lines as they look ahead at the ever-changing trends in food and beverage on their ships.
Remember the you-got-chocolate-in-my-peanut-butter, you-got-peanut-butter-on-my-chocolate debate? And what’s that got to do with music videos and today’s musical celebration of St. Patrick’s Day?
Airborne Capital Inc the leasing company that seized four planes from Flair Airlines over the weekend said the carrier routinely missed payments over the past five months, essentially contradicting Flair CEO Stephen Jones who told reporters Monday the company is now 100 percent caught up on its leases after being “a few days in arrears” with about $1 million owing on the jetliners. Flair has subsequently filed a $50-million lawsuit against several plane leasing companies.
Canadians will once again need a tourist visa to visit Brazil, effective Oct. 1. The South American country is re-imposing the requirement (as well as for Brits, Americans, and Japanese travellers), because those countries require visas for Brazilians.
MSC Cruises is expanding its new entertainment offerings at sea with Guinness World Records, the recognized officials for incredible record-breaking titles worldwide. The new program will allow passengers to test their mettle at live shows and – if they’re lucky – get their name in the record books.
When the Vancouver Canucks defeated the Nashville Predators in an overtime shootout on Monday night, March 6, spirits were high inside Rogers Arena. Inside a private suite high above the ice, spirits were high before the game even began, when Travel Oregon hosted media and regional travel partners to a celebratory reception in a large private suite.
From cosmopolitan Birmingham to literary Stratford-upon-Avon, and epic castles like Kenilworth and Warwick to the industrial heritage of the Black Country Museum and the Ironbridge Gorge, England’s West Midlands region epitomizes the best of Britain.
First in Service Travel (F1S) wrapped it’s F1S SUMM1T in New York this week marking a number of firsts: first major conference since pandemic, first-ever two-day event, and first to invite suppliers.
Dima Fahed has been promoted to business development representative at Transat. She joins the Ontario, Atlantic and Western sales team, effective March 20. Fahed has held various roles at Transat over the past 15 years, including call centre, FIT/customize Greece, as well as group sales (weddings, leisure and incentive, and customized Europe).
The Transportation Safety Board is calling for better screening of heart-related conditions of Canadian pilots. The recommendation comes after at least eight fatal or serious plane crashes between the early 2000s and 2021 – all believed to be linked to heart attacks or cardiovascular diseases among pilots.
Disgruntled air travellers will soon have an extra ear to hear their complaints thanks to additional funding from the federal government for the Canadian Transport Agency. Ottawa says the $75.9 million funding over three years, starting in 2023-24, will help strengthen passenger rights by giving the Agency additional resources to reduce the backlog of existing complaints, including hiring 200 more staff.
Nearly 300,000 customers in the U.S. Northeast were without power Tuesday as a winter storm yet again caused chaos. A ground stop temporarily halted planes at New York’s LaGuardia Airport caused ongoing delays and as of Tuesday afternoon there were 845 flight cancellations within, into, or out of the US, with the majority of them in the Northeast.
After a three-year halt during the COVID-19 pandemic, China is at last reopening its borders to tourists and has resumed issuing all visas effective today. China is one of the last major countries to reopen its borders to tourists and has been one of the most restrictive regimes in the world during the global health crisis, which is believed to have originated in the city of Wuhan in late 2019.
Citing the continued surge in luxury travel, Kensington Tours reports that it has “shattered” pre-pandemic sales levels, posting record results for the first two months of the year. The tour operator says sales in January were 50 percent higher than the same period in January 2020, but even more notably, double what they were in January 2019.
Silversea Cruises has introduced new direct private charter flights for 28 of its Arctic and Greenland sailings in 2023 and ‘24. Guests sailing on select Silver Endeavour, Silver Wind, and Silver Cloud voyages can take advantage of the air service from the several global cities including Montreal to such remote Arctic destinations as Longyearbyen, Kangerlussuaq, and Pond Inlet.
Celebrating excellence in Indigenous tourism, the Indigenous Tourism Association of Canada (ITAC) announced its annual award winners at a gala conference in Winnipeg last week. The International Indigenous Tourism Conference (IITC), held March 8-10, is the largest Indigenous conference in the world.
Florida’s southwest coast has experienced a flare-up of the toxic “red tide” algae causing warnings against swimming, dead fish to wash up on beaches, and the cancellation of a beachside festival. And there are concerns that it that the bloom, which started in October, could stick around for awhile.
United Airlines has named Sesame Street’s Oscar the Grouch as its first ‘Chief Trash Officer’ as part of a new consumer education campaign designed to promote the expected benefit of using sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) more broadly.
Saturday marked three years since the World Health Organization first called the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak a pandemic on March 11, 2020, and the United Nation’s health organization said it’s not yet ready to say the emergency has ended.
As Flair Airlines accused one of Canada’s top two airlines of trying to “kneecap” its operations, an aviation expert says the seizure of four Flair Airlines planes over the weekend points to the fierce competition and high demand playing out in the Canadian air travel industry whereby the “slightest sneeze” in a payment plan could trigger lease termination.
With the busy spring travel season upon us and summer looming, the decision to cap flights and the number of travellers by the Greater Toronto Airports Authority (GTAA) last week fails both passengers and airport workers, says the union representing the latter.
From appointments to conferences, and a new ambassadors program, it’s been busy days at Navigtr. Here’s the latest from the travel company’s agency brands Ensemble and Travel Edge Network.
MSC Cruises Canada has announced the appointment of travel industry veteran Tammy Thompson as Business Development Manager for Ontario and Atlantic Canada, based in Toronto.