Airlines
Agents’ Choice: Last Chance To Vote
Calling all travel agents! Today is your last chance to vote in the annual Agents' Choice readership survey. Vote now at www.travelpress.com/agentschoice. In case you missed the chance to vote in Agents’ Choice - Canada's original and most authoritative travel industry survey - Baxter Media has re-opened the survey for a limited time to capture any votes that may have been missed due to the havoc wreaked by the onset of COVID-19 in mid-March. Vote for your favourite destinations, suppliers, brands and services in 40+ categories, and be entered in a draw to win one of five...
JetBlue, American Partner To Create More Options
These are definitely remarkable times. Consider the fact that JetBlue Airways Corp. and American Airlines Group Inc. have announced a strategic partnership that will create seamless connectivity for travellers in the Northeast and more choice for customers across their complementary domestic and international networks. As well, the relationship will accelerate each airline’s recovery as the travel industry adapts to new trends as a result of the pandemic. The newly announced partnership also includes an alliance agreement that proposes codeshare and loyalty benefits that will...
SWISS Takes Off From Canada
Swiss International Air Lines (SWISS) resumed its flights from Montreal’s Pierre Elliot Trudeau International Airport to and from Zurich on July 15. Initially, the service has three weekly flights. The Zurich-Montreal route is just one of the many Canadian routes opened by various passenger airlines of the Lufthansa Group as a result of international travel restrictions being eased. The Zurich-Montreal flight now operates on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays, with an Airbus A340-300 aircraft with a three-class configuration that includes First, Business and Economy. Sept. 1...
Caribbean Islands, Airlines Have A Plan
Turks and Caicos minister of tourism, Ralph Higgs announced an update to travel requirements to the destination as a part of TCI Assured, a quality assurance pre-travel program and portal, which went live on July 15 in advance of the reopening of borders on July 22, 2020. The minister said that in consideration of testing availability across the country, the Turks and Caicos Islands is now requiring a negative COVID-19 PCR test result from a test taken within five days of travel, rather than the previous requirement of a test to be taken within three days of travel. Children under...
What To Do About Expired Identification?
This week, TraveLaw Online’s Doug Crozier and Tim Law of Heifetz, Crozier, Law respond to a question from a reader who asks how they should advise clients who are travelling by air, but both their passport and their driver’s licence have expired. Q: Some clients have no Passport, and a Driver’s Licence that has expired and has not been renewed due to COVID-caused shutdowns by the various provincial governments. If they are now to fly domestically, what can we tell them about the boarding problems they might run into at the airport? A: For domestic flights, government-issued...
Air Canada Proposes A New Approach
In a letter to Transport Minister Marc Garneau and Health Minister Patty Hajdu, Air Canada's chief medical officer, Dr. Jim Chung is urging the Canadian government to consider a science-based approach to easing the Quarantine Act restrictions, which have been essentially unchanged since March, to strike a better balance for travellers and for the Canadian economy without adversely impacting public health. Air Canada said that it is not proposing relaxing the U.S. border restrictions at this time - only to replace the quarantine requirements for those countries with a low COVID-19 risk...
Roadblock Ahead
As the travel industry slowly begins to pick up the pieces in the wake of COVID-19, there are still many hurdles to overcome. News of countries in Europe reopening borders to Canadians was overshadowed by the fact that the federal government is still advising against non-essential travel and requiring arriving passengers to self-isolate for 14 days. Until these limitations are lifted, can recovery begin? Even within the country, varying restrictions are in place, and policies and procedures range from province to province, airport to airport. Travel Courier chats with a panel of...
GTAA Cuts Staff In Response To COVID-19
The Greater Toronto Airports Authority (GTAA) is reducing its workforce by 27% and putting a new structure to align with its business transformation and enable more nimble, innovative, and recovery-focused operations in place. The GTAA said that the changes “reflect a significant decrease in global air traffic,” with passenger numbers at Toronto Pearson currently at approximately 1996 operating levels. In April 2020, the GTAA reported its passenger numbers were reduced by 97% compared to the same period of 2019. In making the announcement the airport authority said that the...