Air Canada ticket sales for March of this year nearly reached pre-pandemic levels, one of the surest signs yet that the travel rebound is real. Canada’s largest airline released its first quarter results today. One of the key indicators is that ticket sales for March of 2022 were more than 90% of sales in March, 2019. Air Canada officials called that “a leading indicator to much stronger 2022 second and third quarter results.” For the quarter, Air Canada had operating revenues of $2.573 billion, more than triple that of the same quarter last year. The airline reported a first quarter Read more
Canada
Beginning today, tourism businesses in Toronto, Mississauga and Brampton can apply for support through the Tourism Relief Fund (TRF) to expand and enhance visitor experiences. Destination Toronto is administering the program in its capacity as Regional Tourism Organization 5 (RTO5), working in close partnership with the City of Toronto, Tourism Mississauga, and the City of Brampton Tourism Office, on behalf of FedDev Ontario. Announced by the federal government in July 2021, the Tourism Relief Fund supports tourism businesses and organizations in adapting their operations to meet changing public health requirements, while investing in new products and services to attract visitors Read more
The government of Canada is easing border rules for those who are fully vaccinated and for children, regardless of their vaccination status. “Unvaccinated or partially vaccinated children aged 5-11 who are accompanied by a fully vaccinated parent, step-parent, guardian or tutor will no longer be required to complete a pre-entry COVID-19 test for entry to Canada,” the Trudeau government announced. “Pre-entry tests will still be required for partially vaccinated or unvaccinated travellers 12 and older who are currently eligible to travel to Canada. Children under 5 years of age are not required to provide a COVID-19 test result.: The changes Read more
Expedia says research done in the past week shows Canadians are eager to visit the United States after two years of a pandemic. Expedia Canada looked at both hotel searches and flight searches for U.S. destinations between March 11 and April 9, 2022. “There is so much pent up travel demand to the U.S., which was always a favourite for Canadians before the pandemic,” Expedia Canada officials said. “In fact, over the last week we have seen an increase of around 10% when it comes to flight searches to Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Honolulu and San Francisco on Expedia.ca. “As Read more
Sunwing Airlines Inc. says the network-wide system outage that has grounded travellers and delayed flights to and from sun destinations is still not resolved. The crisis is now stretching into its fifth day. Canadian Press and the Toronto Star report that Sunwing continues to advise customers travelling over the next few days to check their flight status before heading to the airport. Sunwing has apologized for the ongoing delays, which it says are the result of a data security breach affecting its third-party provider of passenger handling systems. The Toronto-based airline/travel company says it has been forced to write out Read more
