Airlines
Canada, Israel Expand Air Deal
Both Air Canada and Transat A.T are welcoming the Canadian government's announcement of an expanded air transport agreement with Israel. With the revised agreement Air Canada indicated it will look to further expand its services between Canada and Israel. Benjamin Smith, president, passenger airlines at Air Canada, commented: “Air Canada welcomes the expansion of the Canada-Israel air transport agreement as it will allow us to enhance our network and further advance our successful international expansion strategy.” Smith said: “We look forward to increasing our services to...
Air Canada Joins Agents’ Choice Awards Gala
Baxter Media is pleased to announce Air Canada's participation in the first annual Agents' Choice Awards Gala as a presenting sponsor. The Agents' Choice Awards Gala evening, set for June 14, 2018 in Toronto, brings the 19th annual Agents' Choice readership survey to life by honouring favourites in each category with a trophy presentation live on stage. Air Canada's presenting sponsorship demonstrates their commitment to celebrating the best and brightest at the Canadian travel industry's signature event of the year. In addition to presenting the Agents' Choice Awards survey...
Take A Vacation
There were some raised eyebrows at the offices of Air Transat when it learned that 33% of Canadians haven't taken a vacation in the past two years. So not surprisingly, the airline decided to take concrete action in line with its brand promise to “brighten the everyday with the joy of vacations.” Eager to learn more about why some Canadians hardly ever take a vacation, Air Transat mounted an operation to “infiltrate” the performance-evaluation meetings of employees at a select group of companies. These workers all had something in common: they are very much appreciated by...
Tan Joins WestJet
Alfredo C. Tan as Chief Digital and Innovation Officer. Alfredo will join WestJet on March 5, 2018. He will report to Ed Sims, executive vice-president, commercial for WestJet and will head the further development and rollout of WestJet's digital strategy as the airline transitions from a low-cost, point-to-point carrier to a fully-fledged network airline. As well as leading the WestJet Digital team at the airline's headquarters in Calgary, Tan will begin to build a second team in Toronto. Together, these teams will collaborate in building out WestJet's full digital capabilities...
Porter Signs New Deal With Travelport
Travelport reports that Porter Airlines has signed a new multi-year renewal content agreement, becoming the latest Canadian airline that has signed on for Travelport's Rich Content and Branding merchandising solution. Under the new deal, Porter will join more than 250 global airlines using Travelport's Rich Content and Branding merchandising solution to display their branded fares and ancillary content in a graphically rich and visual way in order to feature ancillary products more prominently. For travel agents shopping for and booking flights via Travelport's Airline Merchandising...
YVR, Destination Canada Sign Deal
Vancouver Airport Authority (YVR) and Destination Canada have signed a Memorandum of Understanding designed to strengthen the relationship between the two organizations and to align strategic priorities in air service development, tourism and business opportunities throughout Canada. The Honourable Bardish Chagger, Minister of Small Business and Tourism and Leader of the Government in the House of Commons, said: “This agreement is great news for Canadian tourism. Following Canada 150, and what I expect will be the best year ever for Canadian tourism, this agreement will help bring...
Sunwing Travel Group Recognized
For the 13th year, Sunwing Travel Group has made PROFIT Magazine’s list of Canada's “Fastest-Growing Companies” with a five-year growth rate of 156%. The PROFIT 500 ranks Canadian businesses by their revenue growth. As the only vertically integrated travel company included on the PROFIT 500 index, Sunwing Travel Group operates a leisure charter airline with a fleet of 40 planes, a luxury charter service with access to private jets, three North American tour operators, two travel retailers, a hotel division with a portfolio exceeding 14,000 rooms, a vacation club and a destination...
Talking About A New Generation
The travel trade has just a couple of months to get used to the idea of the New Generation IATA Settlement Systems (NewGen ISS) because a progressive wave roll-out is slated to start on March 1, with worldwide implementation scheduled for the end of 2019, reports Quebec editor, Mike Dunbar in the second part of a multi-part series on IATA in this week's digital edition of Canadian Travel Press. And all stakeholders had better get used to idea because, unlike the New Distribution Capability (NDC) initiative, it’s compulsory, said IATA director general, Alexandre de Juniac, in an aside...