Airlines
LH Taking Off From Canada
Lufthansa says that it is planning to bolster the limited number of intercontinental flights to Canada with a resumption, in June, of service from Toronto. The carrier will ramp up with three weekly, non-stop flights from Toronto to Frankfurt beginning June 3. Additional Canadian flights are currently being evaluated and planned for later in the summer. The Toronto–Frankfurt flight adds a long-haul connection for Toronto-based travel to Europe, the Middle East, Africa and India. These include flights within Germany, as well as to cities in Austria, France, Italy, Spain and...
Air Canada Laying Off 20,000 As Of June 7
As Canadians prepared for the annual May 24 long weekend, media across the country began reporting the details of an Air Canada internal memo that indicates the carrier will be laying off 20,000 of its workers as the impact of COVID-19 cuts deep into its business. All of the company’s staff were advised in an internal memo of the layoffs which are effective June 7 and come following what the airline describes as a “fundamental review” of its business and the steps it has to take in order to emerge from the pandemic crisis and rebuild the airline. The numbers detailed in the...
Sunwing Celebrates The Frontline Heroes
It’s all about giving back for Sunwing, and it’s doing just that for frontline workers across Canada, giving away 100 all-inclusive vacations to Royalton Luxury Resorts. Sunwing’s Hero Vacations initiative calls on Canadians to nominate deserving frontline heroes who have helped their family or community fight the pandemic. Eligible nominees can be health care workers, emergency service providers or anyone who has helped keep Canada safe during this difficult time. Stephen Hunter, president and CEO of Sunwing, said of the initiative: “As a Canadian family-owned business,...
When Will Domestic Travel Start Again?
In a special report for Canadian Travel Press, Eric Barber writes that if the Canadian government was looking for any guidelines on how to put the travel and tourism industry in Canada back to work, they might want to consider a new report from Germany’s Kompetenzzentrum Tourismus des Tourismus and represents the first document in tourism that plots a timeline for the return of tourism in Germany based on select factors: politics, economics and science. The report identifies four phases of COVID-19, which are represented by Shutdown, Loosening, Revival & Normalization. ...
Need To Compete
IATA -- describing travel as being in a “free fall” and the airline industry as being “bare bones” due to the impact of COVID-19 -- is advising Caribbean governments to cut passenger taxes if they wish to be competitive when service is restored. Peter Cerda, IATA’s regional vice president for the Americas, says that the state of the global airline sector -- including carriers in the Caribbean -- is “as bad as one could expect,” and the industry will need government support to resume any form of service. In this week’s Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO) podcast,...
Safe Travels
The World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) has unveiled a range of new worldwide measures to restart the sector. The new measures are have designed to rebuild confidence among consumers so they can travel safely once the restrictions are lifted. Called Safe Travels, the new protocols provide consistency to destinations and countries as well as guidance to travel providers, operators and travellers on the new approach to health and hygiene in the post COVID-19 world. The health and safety of travellers and workers is put at the heart of the new global protocols, which have been...
UK, France, EU Updates On Border Measures
In his address to the United Kingdom yesterday evening, British Prime Minister, Boris Johnson outlined plans to carefully reopen the nation’s economy. Outlining the plans, the British PM said of the way forward: “I must stress again that all of this is conditional, it all depends on a series of big Ifs. It depends on all of us – the entire country – to follow the advice, to observe social distancing, and to keep that R down.” And Johnson also indicated that “to prevent re-infection from abroad, I am serving notice that it will soon be the time – with transmission...
Air Update: IATA, Nanaimo, Air France, KLM & More
IATA says that while it supports the wearing of face coverings for passengers and masks for crew on board aircraft “as a critical part of a layered approach to biosecurity to be implemented temporarily when people return to traveling by air, it does not support mandating social distancing measures that would leave ‘middle seats’ empty. The global airline industry association argues that evidence suggests that the risk of transmission on board aircraft is low, pointing out that mask-wearing by passengers and crew will reduce the already low risk, while avoiding the dramatic cost...