Airlines
Transat Celebrates
This past Tuesday (Nov. 14), 21 Air Transat passengers landed in seventh heaven when they won a pair of tickets to fly to any of the carrier’s destinations, following a random draw held that day aboard all 21 Air Transat flights out of Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver, as well as several European cities. The surprise draw was a way to mark the anniversary date of Air Transat’s inaugural flight – on Nov. 14, 1987, Transat welcomed its first 360 travellers from Montreal aboard a Lockheed L-1011 bound for Acapulco, Mexico. A few days earlier, Transat unveiled new livery for its...
Cathay to Roll Out Inflight WiFi Across Wide-Body Fleet
Staying connected while flying with Cathay will soon be a lot easier. The Cathay Pacific Group will introduce high-speed WiFi to its Boeing 777 and Airbus A330 fleets from mid-2018, in response to its customers’ growing demand for inflight connectivity. This follows the successful introduction of broadband services to its Airbus A350-900, one of the aircraft servicing the Vancouver/Hong Kong route. Cathay Pacific Chief Customer and Commercial Officer Paul Loo said, “We have been listening to our customers who have told us that staying connected inflight is important to them. Our...
New SkyTeam Lounge Opens at YVR
A new executive lounge for passengers flying on airlines that are part of the SkyTeam alliance opened with a splashy event air-side at Vancouver International Airport this week. It is SkyTeam’s first lounge in the Americas and seventh worldwide. The upper level space was constructed with an open-air concept near to the roof support structures of the terminal, with views of passenger traffic below and expansive views of the scenery outside. The lounge was designed to offer SkyTeam customers a high-end, pre-flight experience with a range of amenities. These include locally sourced...
Flair Airlines Launches New Website
BC's Flair Airlines has unveiled a new website and online flight booking system. The new site has been designed to provide a user-friendly experience with improved navigation and functionality throughout the site. Agents and travellers will be able to access detailed information about destinations, products/fares and flight tracker information. “We know that more and more of our customers are booking their flights with their mobile devices, and they have asked that the process to book their flights be streamlined, and this site delivers just that,” said Chris Lapointe,...
AC, Sky Regional Conclude 10-Year Extension Agreement
Air Canada and Sky Regional Airlines have concluded a 10-year extension to their existing capacity purchase agreement (CPA), effective April 1, 2017. “This 10-year extension to the existing capacity purchase agreement with Sky Regional Airlines underscores our confidence in our Air Canada Express partner to provide a seamless operation and customer experience on behalf of Air Canada in a number of our key domestic and transborder regional markets on a cost competitive basis,” said Kevin Howlett, senior vice-president, Regional Markets and Government Relations at Air Canada. “With...
Amazon’s Alexa Joins Air Canada Team
Air Canada is expanding customers' options for getting travel information by becoming the first Canadian airline to develop a skill for Amazon's popular voice service, Alexa. Devices with Alexa will use machine learning and artificial intelligence to respond to spoken questions about such things as fare quotes and the status of Air Canada flights. “Advances in innovative and new technologies like Artificial Intelligence and Natural Language Processing have great promise to deliver more convenience for our customers,” said Mark Nasr, vice-president of Loyalty and eCommerce at Air...
Transat Marks 30 Years
With 375 partners and guests in attendance at its facilities at Montréal-Trudeau airport, Transat A.T. Inc. celebrated its 30th anniversary yesterday, taking the opportunity to unveil its new fleet livery. “I feel a great sense of pride when I look at how far we’ve come since Nov. 14, 1987, when our first flight took off from Montreal bound for Acapulco,” said Jean-Marc Eustache, president and chief executive officer of Transat. “And our journey is far from over. While our tour operating business and our aviation operations are tried and tested, our services continue to evolve...
Island Air Ceases Operations
Hawaii Island Air, Inc. (Island Air) has ceased operations, as of Nov. 11. As a result of this announcement, all Island Air passengers must make alternative arrangements for inter-island transportation, Earlier this month, Island Air was forced to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in an effort to continue operations following threats of legal action by the Lessors of Island Air’s aircraft to ground and repossess the company’s fleet. Island Air was unable to locate a new investor or lender to provide funding to support airline flight operations and a successful...