Airlines
WestJet Names Schuster As Executive VP, CLO
WestJet has appointed Karl Schuster, as its Executive Vice-President and Chief Loyalty Officer (CLO). Schuster will join the WestJet executive leadership team in early 2022, following the completion of the immigration process. He has over 19 years of loyalty experience, including six years as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Velocity Frequent Flyer, Virgin Australia's loyalty program. During his time at Virgin Australia, Schuster grew Velocity to be one of the largest loyalty programs in Australia, significantly increasing their annual revenue; increasing membership...
All About Helping Kids For Air Canada Foundation
It’s Giving Tuesday and your donations will go a long way in helping Jessica and her son Israfil, a two-year old boy who suffers from a rare type of cancer, and many other kids across Canada, to fly for medical appointments. That’s the goal of the Air Canada Foundation Aeroplan Points Matching Week is all about: helping children reach medical care. Valérie Durand, spokesperson for the Air Canada Foundation, said that: “Your generosity, year after year, truly makes a difference in the lives of children and their families. With your precious contribution we've been able, over...
Taylor Is Now Interim President, CEO At WestJet
Harry Taylor has officially assumed the role of interim President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO). The WestJet group announced Taylor as the interim President and CEO on Sept. 15, 2021, following news of Ed Sims retirement announced on June 9, 2021. Commenting on the announcement, Taylor said: “I am honoured to take on the interim role of CEO at this pivotal time for the WestJet Group, and am focused on our relentless commitment to safety above all while ensuring continuity for our recovery, as we rebuild our airlines for our guests and our people.” He continued: “By...
Air North Adds Toronto Flights
Air North, Yukon's Airline is adding Toronto, Ontario to its route network. Joe Sparling, Air North’s president and CEO, said that: “As we look towards economic recovery in the Yukon and the Northwest Territories over the coming years, it has become evident to us that another connection to central Canada is going to be essential. Having a direct flight to Canada’s economic hub will kickstart opportunity for both territories.” Sparling’s comments were echoed by Garry Njootli, president of the Vuntut Gwitchin Development Corporation and a member of Air North’s board of...
WestJet, TELUS Partner On Boarding Trial
WestJet and TELUS have teamed up to trial Trusted Boarding, a touchless process that uses safe and secure facial verification technology to verify travellers' identity prior to boarding a flight. The trial was the first-of-its-kind in Canada and took place at the YYC Calgary International Airport. Stuart McDonald, executive vice-president and chief information officer, said: “The travel experience is evolving to include many touchless processes and WestJet is innovating to ensure our guests' travel journey improves to become more seamless and efficient, while prioritizing safety...
IATA Calls For Caution On DCC Validity
IATA is calling for caution following the European Commission Recommendation that the EU Digital COVID Certificate (DCC) should only remain valid for up to nine months after the second vaccination dose, unless a booster jab is administered. Rafael Schvartzman, regional vice president for Europe for IATA, points out that: “The EU DCC is a great success in driving a common continent-wide approach to managing the COVID-19 health crisis and in facilitating the freedom of people to travel again. It underpins a fragile recovery in the travel and tourism sector. And it is critical that any...
Airlines Get Social
Following the ease of travel restrictions and reopening of international borders for vaccinated travellers, global airlines companies are striving to maintain services majorly by addressing staffing shortage issue amid massively increase in bookings. Against this backdrop, American Airlines has emerged as the top mentioned airline operator among the top 10 most mentioned airlines companies on the basis of social media conversations of Twitter influencers and Redditors in 2021, GlobalData reports. The data and analytics company’s Social Media Analytics (SMA) Platform, which...
The WestJet Group Takes Off With AZOVA
The WestJet Group has rolled out a significant expansion to its COVID-19 testing program through AZOVA -- a leading digital health technology platform. The new program is designed to give guests the confidence to book their holiday travel knowing all their COVID testing requirements are available through a convenient and easy-to-use site at https://www.azova.com/westjetswoop/. With AZOVA's app-based program, guests have access to a vast network of approved testing locations across Canada and the majority of WestJet transborder and international destinations. Additionally, AZOVA...