The snowstorms that iced many Canadians out of their holiday travel plans, continue to leave airline and railway executives and politicians on the hot seat. New data from the Angus Reid Institute finds Canadians blame airlines and rail companies almost as much as they do the weather for cancelled flights and delayed trains over Christmas and New Years. The Angus Reid poll found that 70% of Canadians blame the weather, but that 68% said the problems lie with airlines and rail companies. One-in-three (33%) point the finger at the federal government. A similar number (30%) blame the travellers for putting Read more
Canada
A new report on LGBTQ+ travellers shows they should be a key target group for Canadian tour operators and Canadian destinations. The study from MMGY Global found that half of LGBTQ+ travelers said that the safety of a destination is a concern when deciding where to go. That meshes perfectly with a study from just a couple days ago that said Montreal is the third safest city in the world. The MMGY report also found that 52% of LGBTQ+ respondents said state politics related to their LGBTQ+ identity greatly impact their decision to travel. Presumably, that also means that LGBTQ+ Read more
Montreal is consistently ranked as one of the world’s best cities to visit. Now it’s ranked as one of the safest. The Berkshire Hathaway Travel Protection Group’s new city safety ratings put Montreal at number three in te world, behind only Reyjavik, Iceland and Copenhagen. “Less than a point separates Copenhagen and Montreal, which should give you an idea of Montreal’s relative safety,” Berkshire Hathaway stated. The only other North American city in the top 15 was Honolulu, ranked #12. “This former No. 1 safest city finished less than a point outside of the top 10,” the report said, From Read more
A top Canadian airline executive says he’s opposed to the idea of giving passengers automatic refunds for delayed or cancelled flights. Speaking on CTV’s Question Period today, Andrew Gibbons, WestJet’s vice-president of external affairs says the airline is opposed to what the network called “wall-to-wall federal rules around automatic compensation for passengers in the event of flight delays.” “We don’t think bulk automatic policies are the way to go,” Andrew Gibbons told CTV’s Question Period host Vassy Kapelos, in an interview airing Sunday. “We do like to have an individual relationship with our guests.” Some Canadian travel experts have called Read more
The Trudeau government is promising to beef up air passenger protection rules in the wake of a chaotic holiday travel season that saw hundreds of Canadian stranded far from home. Speaking to a special session of a House of Commons committee on Thursday (Jan. 12), Transport Minister Omar Alghabra suggested that Ottawa is looking to changing regulations so that more of the onus is on airlines to show why they don’t have to compensate a mistreated customer, The Globe and Mail reports. According to the Globe, Alghabra said passengers are too often told by airlines that they’re not entitled to Read more
