Here are some new travel bits from today’s news, as well as a recap of some items from earlier this week that you might have missed. Canada’s Travel Guy, at your service. PORTER AIRLINES TRIMS SCHEDULE The Globe and Mail today reports that Toronto-based Porter Airlines has made “extensive” cuts to its flight schedule. The airline in the last couple months has with great fanfare announced a series of new routes on its new Embraer jets, including Toronto-Calgary and Toronto-Vancouver. I spotted airline founder Bob Deluce at Toronto Pearson a few weeks ago and he said more big announcements Read more
Canada
If you’re looking for a great weekend getaway in Toronto, The Westin Harbour Castle, Toronto is your kind of place. As a 32-year employee of the Toronto Star, which had its offices across the street for half a century, I’d been in the hotel dozens of times. But I’d never spent the night until a recent weekend in March. We had a great room, with nice, clean lines, plenty of space and a fine view of Lake Ontario. There was a comfy chair in the corner, a coffee maker and a big-screen television. As someone who bring his laptop everywhere Read more
Flair Airlines today announced that Julia Haywood has been elected as chair of the company’s board of directors. The airline said that makes her the first female airline board chair in Canadian history. Haywood succeeds Bill Hardy, Flair Airlines’ long-time chair of the board of directors and former Chief Operating Officer, who passed away in early 2023. Haywood joined Flair’s board in July 2021. Her 20-year career includes roles of increasing responsibility, including serving as Executive Vice-President and Chief Commercial Officer of United Airlines, as Partner at The Boston Consulting Group, and in various capacities at other startup travel companies. Haywood Read more
I’m not sure what this means for travel and tourism, but it can’t hurt Canadian efforts to lure more American visitors – and American dollars – north of the border. A new poll by Angus Reid finds that Canadians are more unified than Americans in viewing their country as a caring and safe place to call home, and a positive contributor to the globe. Overall, four-in-five Canadians (78%) say their country is a caring society. Only one-in-three Americans say the same (36%). Nine-in-ten north of the 49th parallel say they live in a safe country (89%), while half as many Read more
Canada’s passport application backlog has been ‘completely eliminated,’ one of the top ministers in the Trudeau government says. CTV News reports tat Families, Children and Social Development Minister Karina Gould this week said that service times for passport applications are back to pre-pandemic standards, after the backlog ballooned last summer. Canadians looking to renew their passports last summer found long wait lines and lengthy delays, an issue that passport officials said was due to a huge spike in demand for travel as COVID travel restrictions began to ease. The CBC reports that Canadians waiting anxiously for their passports to arrive before Read more
