Leisure travel is booming in Canada. The loyalty program is going strong. And there are new Marriott hotels coming across the country. I recently sat down with Paul Cahill, the Senior Vice-President for Canada Operations for Marriott International Inc., to talk about Marriott Bonvoy’s portfolio of hotels in Canada. There are currently 275 Marriott properties in Canada, and 90 more are in the pipeline. Cahill said Marriott is especially focused on lifestyle, upper-midscale and extended stay brands. Ninety new hotels is a lot, but Cahill noted that Marriott saw leisure revenue in Canada increase by a remarkable 36% in 2023, Read more
Canada
The carnage continues. But WestJet executives and the union representing striking airiline mechanics appear set to resume bargaining. WestJet has announced the cancellation of a total of an astounding 832 flights as it deals with a surprise strike by the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association (AMFA). WestJet today said it has cancelled an additional 410 flights, raising the total to more than 800 flights since the strike notice was issued just days in advance of Canada Day long weekend. That’s roughly 110,000 passengers with cancelled flights. “Missed vacation goers, stranded business travellers and long-weekend family reunions have been disrupted due Read more
Welcome to Canada Day travel chaos. With WestJet mechanics out on a surprising strike, the airline has cancelled 150 flights for today (Saturday, June 29), and it warns more could be coming. Mechanics walked off the job at 7:30 p.m. Eastern Time last night (Friday, June 28), an action the union says is perfectly legal despite a ministerial order from the Justin Trudeau government that union reps and WS undergo binding arbitration to come up with a new bargaining agreement. A couple of hours later, WestJet announced it will cancel 150 flights, possibly affecting 20,000 travellers. It also warned that Read more
A country’s safety and sense of security are often key criteria for international travellers. Using a set of 35 objective indicators, HelloSafe has published for the first time its HelloSafe Index of the safety of countries worldwide, based on 5 categories of criteria: risk of natural disasters, violence in society, involvement in armed conflict, health infrastructure and militarization. The results show that Iceland, Singapore (here’s a story I wrote about Singapore recently) and Denmark are the three safest countries in the world to travel to in 2024. The Philippines, Colombia and Mexico are the three least safe countries in the world in Read more
Porter Airlines is responding to strong demand for its service by more than doubling capacity to Florida this winter. The new schedule features up to 126 weekly departures across 14 routes from four Eastern Canada airports in Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal and Halifax. The line-up of destinations includes Fort Lauderdale, Fort Myers, Miami, Orlando, Tampa, and the new addition of West Palm Beach. Seasonal service between Toronto Pearson International Airport and Palm Beach International Airport begins November 14, with one daily roundtrip flight. New service from Montreal-Trudeau International Airport to Fort Lauderdale and Fort Myers starts this winter. Porter is the Read more
