Airlines
Air Canada to Launch Year-Round Service to Rio
Air Canada will launch a new, non-stop service between Toronto and Rio de Janeiro beginning Dec. 11. The year-round flights to Brazil’s “Marvelous City” will complement the carrier’s existing daily non-stop service to Sao Paulo. The new service is timed for convenient connections to Air Canada’s network at Toronto’s Pearson airport, including to Tokyo-Haneda, Hong Kong, Beijing and Shanghai, and further expands Air Canada’s global reach from Toronto. Flights are available for sale now and commence operating, three days a week, beginning Dec. 11. The service will be...
Air France Unveils New La Première, a Designer Suite
Air France unveiled its new La Première suite at a special event in Shanghai, China, this week. The La Première suite will progressively equip 19 Air France Boeing 777-300 starting in September. The new La Première cabin has four exclusive individual suites designed to ensure optimum privacy and enabling customers to be totally or partially alone, in absolute comfort. The large seat adapts to any morphology and promotes rest and relaxation. The seat turns into a fully flat bed over two metres long. The armrests are fully retractable giving 77 cm of space. Each guest has a...
Tourism PEI, AC Giving Away flights
Tourism PEI and Air Canada Media have launched a contest which will give away 150 flights to Prince Edward Island, as part of this year’s marketing campaign for the 150th anniversary celebrating of the 1864 Charlottetown Conference. Leveraging the powerful reach and audience of Air Canada, the program will be executed across all of the brand’s media channels, including in-flight, digital, print and airport activation. The contest will run until Aug. 28. Designed to promote Prince Edward Island as Canada’s premier island destination and drive domestic tourism, the contest marks...
Transat Launches Toronto-Marseille Service
Air Transat celebrated the first departure of its new Toronto-Marseille flight at Toronto-Pearson Airport Monday night (May 5) with a festive nautical theme. The new service to Marseille is scheduled to Oct. 20 with departures from Toronto every Monday. This new destination is the 20th to be offered in Europe by Air Transat via direct service from Toronto. Transat Holidays, meanwhile, offers travellers who wish to visit Marseille and Provence several new vacation options, including the nine-day Marseille, Nice & Aix-en-Provence package, which explores the historical port of...
Germany In The Spotlight
In this week's edition of Travel Courier, Ian Stalker reports that the German National Tourist Office has chosen a Canadian director who was well familiar with this country even before her current posting. And Antje Splettstoesser notes her taking on the job comes on the eve of Lufthansa preparing yet another Canadian route, making her homeland even more accessible for many Canadians. Splettstoesser's been in this country for five years, first working for the Toronto-based German Canadian Chamber of Industry and Commerce, after which she worked for a company involved in inbound travel,...
Porter to Charge for Checked Baggage
Effective May 14, Porter Airlines will charge $25 for the first bag checked and $35 for a second bag on all Canadian flights booked as of April 21. The same fees have been in place on US routes for some time. The fees are waived for those booking the highest Freedom fare class. Porter’s Brad Cicero noted the weight allowance for checked bags was increased last year, allowing passengers to carry more overall. “We are trying to provide a balance between allowing passengers to carry more baggage and doing so in a way that allows Porter to remain competitive with airlines who...
WestJet Flies a Record 1.6 Million Guests
WestJet has announced April 2014 traffic results with a load factor of 82.3%. Revenue passenger miles (RPMs), or traffic, increased 6.5% year-over-year, and capacity, measured in available seat miles (ASMs), grew 7.1% over the same period. The airline flew 1.6 million guests in April, a year-over-year increase of 7.7% or approximately 116,000 additional guests. “We are pleased with our continued strong growth in traffic as we welcomed a record number of guests in April into our network,” said WestJet president Gregg...
Bad, Bad, Bad, Bad
Air Canada commented on the proposed increase in aviation excise fuel taxes in the Ontario budget, as well as the decision by Ontario Opposition parties to defeat the government's proposed budget. Calin Rovinescu, president and CEO of Air Canada, said: "As one of the largest private sector employers in the province of Ontario, I can say that the proposed increase to aviation fuel taxes is bad for our industry, bad for our employees, bad for our customers and ultimately bad for the economy of Ontario." Rovinescu argued that: "Ontario will continue to lose business to U.S. border...