Airlines
EU Set To Provide Slot Relief For Airlines
The EU says that it’s preparing new temporary rules to help air carriers cope with the drastic decline in air traffic caused by the Coronavirus crisis and avoid operating empty flights. Ambassadors of member states have now agreed on a negotiating mandate for granting airlines relief from airport slot use requirements for summer 2021, while taking initial measures to start relaunching the industry and encourage competition. The new rules will also give flexibility to adapt to different scenarios and allow for measures to be taken up to the summer 2022 scheduling...
Industry Needs To Be At The Table: TIAC
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...
Airline Influencer Conversations Post Staggering Gains
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...
What’s Next For The Travel Industry
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...
NACC Supports Call For Testing On Arrival
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, Sabre Renew, Enhance Partnership
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...
Ford Renews Call For Testing, Temporary Flight Ban
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...
YQM Posts ‘Slim’ Year-End Results
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,...