Airlines
Aeroflot Adds Long-Haul Capacity With New 777-300ER
Aeroflot has taken delivery of a new factory-direct Boeing 777-300ER – the 13th of 16 such aircraft ordered by Aeroflot. The latest addition to its fleet further expands Aeroflot's capacity on long-haul routes to such destinations as (but not limited to) Shanghai, Beijing, Hong Kong, Seoul, Tokyo, New York, Los Angeles, from its base at Moscow's Sheremetyevo International Airport. The new 777-300ER is configured with Business Class, Economy Class and Comfort Class cabins. Passengers flying Comfort Class enjoy a premium-class service at highly competitive prices, with features...
WestJet Launches EMD Process for Pre-Reserved Seats
On June 15, WestJet will enable electronic miscellaneous document (EMD) functionality on its host reservation system. Following this, WestJet and GDS providers will implement the EMD pre-reserved seat process for GDS. The booking steps for purchasing pre-reserved seats on TA Web will remain the same, but the airline has identified a concern with the prices that will be displayed once EMDs are enabled. Since the TA web site can only display one seat fee, the extra legroom fee will be displayed during the booking flow for all seats. At the confirm and payment step, however, the...
New Transat App Keeps Clients Informed
Transat's has introduced a new iOS Air Transat application for smartphones. The Air Transat mobile application gives travellers access to their flight status, information on the destinations offered by Transat and allows them to download their electronic documents. Air Transat’s application is free of charge and available in English and French. Passengers flying aboard Airbus A310 aircraft towards Europe, the United States or down south can also access a world of on-demand inflight entertainment via the Air Transat CinePlus application available from the App Store and the Google...
Air Canada, Unifor Reach Tentative Contract Agreement
Air Canada and Unifor have reached a tentative agreement on a new, 5-year contract. Unifor is the union that represents the carrier's approximately 4,000 Customer Service and Sales Agents. Calin Rovinescu, president and CEO of Air Canada, said: “Along with agreements concluded with other employee groups over the past eight months, this tentative agreement with Unifor, subject to ratification, provides Air Canada with added stability and flexibility to support profitable growth. Importantly, it is a "win-win" agreement which acknowledges the contribution of our customer service and...
Shaking Off The Shackles
In a special to this week's digital edition of Canadian Travel Press, industry veteran, Marc Rosenberg writes that Lufthansa’s recent declaration of a major shake-up to its distribution model should come as no surprise to industry stakeholders who follow the ongoing struggle by airlines to reduce their costs and dependency on the GDSs. In the last 10 years similar moves, starting with Air Canada, then Northwest, American and now Lufthansa have met with mixed results. However looking back, each of these attempts to break free from the perceived shackles of the global distribution...
Airlines to Address Carry-On Bag Dilemma
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has introduced a new initiative to optimize the accommodation of carry-on bags given differing carry-on bag sizes and airline policies. Working with airline members of IATA and aircraft manufacturers, an optimum size guideline for carry-on bags has been agreed that will make the best use of cabin storage space. A size of 55 x 35 x 20 cm (or 21.5 x 13.5 x 7.5 inches) means that theoretically everyone should have a chance to store their carry-on bags on board aircraft of 120 seats or larger. An “IATA Cabin OK” logo to signify to...
Emirates, Porter Launch New Interline Agreement
Emirates and Porter Airlines have launched a new interline agreement providing Canadians greater access to Dubai and beyond. The agreement allows passengers the convenience to depart daily from Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport (YTZ) on Porter, connecting in Boston (BOS) or Washington (IAD), before continuing their journey to Dubai and beyond with Emirates. “Consistently strong flight loads out of Toronto Pearson indicate Canadians continue to enjoy Emirates’ award-winning A380 product and service offering,” said Emirates country manager for Canada, Don McWilliam. “The new...
LH Move A ‘Good Idea’
A straw poll of airline chiefs meeting in Miami for IATA's 71st annual meeting showed that fully 96% of them thought that charging customers for GDS bookings via retailers is a good idea. The poll, which did not identify respondents, was conducted during a CEO panel discussion moderated by CNN's Richard Quest. Defending Lufthansa's decision to impose a charge in order to drive bookings via its own web site, Karsten Spohr declared, "There have been too many people making money from us while we're not making enough.” Christoph Mueller of Malaysia Airlines, said, "I think it's a...