Airlines
WestJet Honours Trade Partners
WestJet's 4th annual Travel Partner Awards was a funny affair last night (Oct. 27). That's because the airline enlisted a popular improv quartet from Boston to entertain the several hundred travel trade guests from across the country who turned out for the elegant gala at the Four Seasons Hotel in Toronto. Suffice to say, be thankful that you're not Transat's Susan Bowman or Red Tag's Joe DeMarinis, who were just a couple of the troupe's “volunteer” targets, today... In addition to the laughs, guests were treated to cocktails and dinner, plenty of door prizes, and the awards....
Air France, KLM Release Winter Schedules
Air France and KLM have released their winter schedules and will be operating 47 weekly flights between Canada and Europe during the winter season – Oct. 30 through March 25, 2017. Air France will offer 22 weekly flights from Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver. The airline will be flying between Montreal and Paris 12 times a week, and once daily out of Toronto. There will be three departures a week for the direct Vancouver-Paris flight inaugurated in 2015. Air France’s Montreal-Paris service now offers new options with departures will at 6:25 p.m. and 9:45 p.m. The airline will...
Routehappy Connects On Deal With AC
Air Canada and Routehappy have signed a new deal that will see AC using the Routehappy Hub to distribute highly targeted, visually rich merchandising content across its worldwide sales and marketing channels to improve the flight shopping experience. As well, Air Canada will be the first airline to participate in a platform integration between Farelogix and Routehappy following the partnership announced earlier this year between the two companies. The integration will seamlessly deliver targeted merchandising content from Routehappy Hub, as well as dynamic pricing and rules-driven...
Air Canada, Sabre Deal Puts Customers First
Corporate and leisure travel buyers in Canada and the United States now have the ability to purchase Air Canada’s Preferred Seats and paid advance seat selection through the Sabre Red platform. The move extends their reach through the Sabre Red Workspace desktop solution and an extensive selection of air shopping and booking API’s. Air Canada’s Preferred seats offer more legroom and are located at the front of the main cabin and in exit rows. Paid advance seats provide a pre-reserved seat choice in the main cabin to passengers who have booked the airline’s “Tango”...
AC Opens New Lounge At Newark
Air Canada has opened a new Maple Leaf Lounge at Newark Liberty International Airport. The new lounge is Air Canada's third in the U.S., and is located beyond security near Air Canada gates, giving eligible Air Canada and Star Alliance customers a calm atmosphere to relax or work prior to their flight. Benjamin Smith, president, passenger airlines at Air Canada, said, “Air Canada is pleased to provide eligible Air Canada and Star Alliance customers a new Maple Leaf Lounge at Newark Liberty airport. We recognize that business and premium customers have additional requirements,...
WestJet Unveils Latest #OwnersCare Campaign
As part of its new Owners Care campaign, WestJet has unveiled its latest video, “Owners Care – Virtual Baggage” where, instead of providing packing tips, the airline packs up virtual WestJetters in custom-made baggage and sends them to Hawaii with one lucky family. “With the recent launch of our Owners Care campaign, we wanted to make an accompanying video that takes the Owners Care theme to the extreme,” said WestJet vice-president Richard Bartrem. “We created three pieces of baggage housing embedded computer screens that allowed WestJetters behind the scenes to see, hear,...
Giving Passengers What They Want
IATA has released its 2016 Global Passenger Survey (GPS), based on 6,920 responses from around the globe and provides insight into what passengers want from their air travel experience. The survey revealed that passengers want to be able to do more of the traditional airport processes “off airport” by taking advantage of the latest digital self-service options. In 2016 the percentage of passengers who checked-in online and used a mobile boarding pass rather than a printed one increased from 69% in 2015 to 71%. The GPS found that the majority of passengers are keen to see the...
Porter Airlines Celebrates First Decade
The cake clearly couldn't be big enough to satisfy the throng of staff, dignitaries and well-wishers on hand at Toronto's Billy Bishop Airport yesterday (Oct. 24) to fete Porter Airlines and deliver a rousing rendition of happy birthday. But it really didn't matter as the visitors were clearly energized simply celebrating the milestone 10th anniversary of a Canadian airline and unique island airport that “many critics said wouldn't work.” Porter Airlines president and CEO Robert Deluce (third from right, shown receiving a keepsake banner presented by Bombadier) was clearly the...