Airlines

Air Canada Athlete of the Year Award

Air Canada has announced Canadian women's soccer player, Christine Sinclair, as the recipient of the first annual Air Canada Athlete of the Year Award. As recipient of this award, she will receive two complimentary Executive First tickets to anywhere in the world Air Canada flies, as well as year-long Super Elite membership privileges for two in Air Canada's Altitude program. In selecting Sinclair for the award, Air Canada president Calin Rovinescu, said, "Christine is a true ambassador for sport in Canada. Her performance, leadership and courage have come to the fore on many occasions and...

Delta, Virgin Atlantic plan alliance

Delta Air Lines and Virgin Atlantic Airways Ltd have put together a deal that will see the two carriers form a new joint venture that will create an expanded trans-Atlantic network and enhance competition between the U.K. and North America. As part of the new joint venture agreement, Delta will invest $360 million in Virgin Atlantic, acquiring a 49% currently held by Singapore Airlines. Virgin Group and Sir Richard Branson will retain the majority 51% stake and Virgin Atlantic Airways will retain its brand and operating certificate. Highlights of the deal include: !!! A fully integrated joint...

Air Canada, SAA sign codeshare agreement

Air Canada and South African Airways (SAA) have signed a codeshare agreement that will make it substantially easier for customers to travel between Canada and South Africa. Effective Dec. 13, customers connecting between the carriers in London or New York will be able to book a single itinerary and make seamless connections. In addition, as both airlines belong to the Star Alliance, customers can benefit from reciprocal frequent flier accumulation or redemption and lounge access for eligible customers. SAA will codeshare on Air Canada-operated flights between London and Vancouver, London and...

Lufthansa on board for premium economy

Lufthansa will be expanding its product portfolio, equipping its entire long-haul fleet with Premium Economy. The carrier's supervisory board has approved the investment capital for the introductory project to achieve this. At the beginning of next year, a project group will be formed to manage the introduction and define the precise features of the product as well as a detailed timetable. Premium Economy will be installed on the entire intercontinental fleet. This substantially upgraded Economy product will fill the gap between the superior Business Class segment, which features a seat that...

Win an Oprah moment from WestJet

WestJet is offering Canadians a chance to see Oprah live in Calgary on Jan. 22, 2013. Facebook users and WestJet Rewards members can enter to win one of six prizes - including two VIP grand prizes where winners will attend a special reception and photo opportunity with Oprah herself. Facebook users who "Like" the WestJet Facebook page can access the airline's official page where they can enter to win one VIP grand prize that includes a private reception and photo opportunity with Oprah, round-trip airfare and hotel accommodations for two and two VIP tickets to see an "Evening with Oprah" in...

IATA looks to the future

In its newly released industry forecast for 2012 to 2016, IATA says that airlines expect to handle some 3.6 billion passengers in 2016 -- that's about 800 million more than the 2.8 billion passengers carried by airlines in 2011. This industry consensus outlook for system-wide passenger growth sees passenger numbers expanding by an average of 5.3% per annum between 2012 and 2016. The 28.5% increase in passenger numbers over the forecast period will see almost 500 million new passengers travelling on domestic routes and 331 million new passengers on international services. IATA's forecast...

Better yields for Porter

Porter Airlines has reported a 54.5% load factor for November. That's a decrease from last year of 11.4 points. Figures for the month show 126.5 million Available Seat Miles (ASMs) and 68.9 million Revenue Passenger Miles (RPMs). ASMs grew 6.7% from 118.6 million and RPMs decreased 11.9% from 78.2 million last year. "We are encouraged to see passenger yield improve significantly from recent months," said Robert Deluce, president and CEO of Porter Airlines. "Advance bookings for December are tracking well compared to last year, and the entire winter season has strong early trends." Go to...

Hogan looks at the future

Development and growth within the airline industry, along with confronting serious challenges, continues to be led by Middle Eastern hubs and airlines, and spearheaded by airline's like Abu Dhabi-based Etihad Airways. That was the message delivered by James Hogan, Etihad Airways' president and CEO, during an address to 200 delegates at the Future of Air Transport Conference that was held in London earlier this week. Hogan spoke in depth about the positive impact the Middle East is having on the global economy and how the focus is shifting from the traditional, more established markets to the...

Another record for WestJet

WestJet reports that it posted a record 82.6% load factor for November 2012. Revenue passenger miles (RPMs), or traffic, increased 8.3% year over year and capacity, measured in available seat miles (ASMs), grew 1.7% over the same period. WestJet flew approximately 114,000 more guests this November compared to November of last year. WestJet president and CEO Gregg Saretsky, said "We are very pleased with this month's load factor which exceeds the previous November record set in 2010 by 4.9% points. Our airline partnership strategy and growing number of business travellers are contributing to...

November loads up for AC

Air Canada turned in a system load factor of 78.1% for November 2012, compared to a load factor of 75.9% for November 2011 -- that's an increase of 2.2 percentage points. The carrier's system traffic increased 4.6% on a system-wide capacity increase of 1.7%. The carrier reports its traffic results on system-wide basis, including regional airlines from which Air Canada purchases capacity. Calin Rovinescu, president and CEO of Air Canada, said that: "For the month of November, Air Canada reported a load factor of 78.1%, an increase of 2.2 percentage points from the previous year and our second...