The head of the Canadian Airports Council is questioning whether Ottawa should have a blanket approach when it comes to people arriving in this country during the coronavirus pandemic.
Daniel-Robert Gooch told a Tuesday Tourism Industry Association of Canada (TIAC) webinar that there's a uniform policy in place for arrivals, even though the countries they're coming from may have very different levels of success when it comes to coping with coronavirus.
This country needs to "be more nimble in how we evaluate risk," said Gooch, wondering whether someone arriving here from New Zealand...
GlobalData is reporting what it describes as a “staggering” 100% year-on-year rise in influencer conversations on Airlines Influencer dashboard during the fourth quarter of 2020.
Against this backdrop, British Airways emerged as the most mentioned airline operator in the UK among influencer conversations on Twitter during the period, The data and analytics company also reported that the UK registered highest number of influencer conversations on Twitter related to aviation industry, followed by the US, Australia, India and Canada.
American Airlines was the top operator in the US...
Yesterday was a busy day and the travel industry was the focus of a large part of the discussions.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau continued to warn Canadians against any and all non-essential travel, reinforcing that message with a warning that new travel restrictions could be announced at any time.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford called for testing of all passengers on arrival in Canada and he also continued to demand a temporary ban on direct flights from countries where new variants of COVID-19 have been detected.
In Manitoba, Premier Brian Pallister announced that travellers coming...
The National Airlines Council of Canada (NACC) says that it supports Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s calls for the testing of passengers on arrival in Canada, however it doesn’t believe that a hotel quarantine provision is required.
NACC president and CEO, Mike McNaney said: “We support Premier Ford’s call today for mandatory testing upon arrival. Throughout the pandemic, we have been very vocal proponents of testing and along with our airport partners have driven the launch of testing programs at major airports to support the development of a clear federal testing strategy that...
WestJet and Sabre have expanded their long-standing partnership with the renewal of the SabreSonic passenger service system (PSS) agreement and the adoption of additional offer, order and data management solutions.
Sabre’s airline IT solutions equips WestJet with the technology necessary to facilitate its business model transformation and future plans in key markets.
In addition to SabreSonic, WestJet will also adopt Sabre’s Dynamic Availability, Digital Connect and Intelligence Exchange solutions.
Together, these products can help WestJet move toward a more flexible and...
Ontario Premier Doug Ford was out at Toronto’s Pearson International Airport today, where he continued to call for mandatory testing for all arriving travellers and a temporary ban of direct flights from countries where new variants of COVID-19 have been detected.
So far, as part of Ontario’s voluntary and free border testing pilot program at Pearson airport, over 6,800 international travellers have been tested for COVID-19.
The program was implemented to help quickly identify and stop the spread of COVID-19 in the province.
Premier Ford observed that: “While we've made...
While 2020 – from January to mid-March – got off to a ‘healthy’ start, Greater Moncton Roméo LeBlanc International Airport (YQM) ended the year, like all airports worldwide, with a huge loss in passenger movements.
The airport reports that 2020 finished with 173,404 passengers in comparison to 674,406 in 2019.
To put this in perspective, this traffic level is almost 30% lower than the 239,320-passenger level of 1997, the year the airport authority took over operation of YQM from the federal government.
Although beneficial in terms of mitigating the spread of the virus,...
As the federal government considers potential new measures to reduce air travel, the National Airlines Council of Canada (NACC) and unions representing over 325,000 Canadian workers are urging it to consult with them before it enacts any new measures.
Airline passenger traffic has dropped precipitously since the onset of the pandemic. As of November 2020, international arrivals had dropped a staggering 93%.
With already dramatically reduced passenger traffic, Canada’s airlines have attempted to continue essential operations with unpredictable to non-existent revenues.
Tens of...
WestJet began reactivating its B737 MAX aircraft Thursday, demonstrating its confidence in the safety of planes that it and other carriers grounded over safety concerns in 2019 by having two, senior airline executives on board its first flight since idling the planes nearly two years ago.
A first B737 MAX flight flew from Calgary to Vancouver, while a second reversed the route. The first flight carried 71 passengers, among them Ed Sims, WestJet president and CEO, and Chris Burley, board chair of the airline.
An airline clearly eager to demonstrate its confidence in an aircraft that...
In an effort to help travellers comply with the new government measure requiring proof of a negative COVID-19 test result to travel to Canada, some of Transat's hotel partners are now offering COVID-19 testing services on-site or at an external clinic.
To simplify the process for travel agents and their clients, Transat has compiled a list of these hotels on its website along with details relating to the testing service (price, appointment scheduling, processing time, etc.).
Furthermore, a clearly marked logo has been added to each resort’s information page.
For any...