Travellers are flocking to cities and small towns in the path of today’s total solar eclipse. Cruise lines are positioning their boats to be in the path of the sun, and airlines are touting routes that will give passengers the best views. A total eclipse will slip across Mexico this afternoon (April 8), and then make its way northwest across Texas and the U.S. Midwest before it hits Niagara Falls, eastern Ontario, southern Quebec and New Brunswick. Folks in Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland also could get a great view of an astronomical event most people never get to see. Read more
Air Canada
The Big Apple, and sunny destinations such as Orlando and Hawai’i are top of mind for travellers, a new study from Hilton says. According to recent data from Hilton.com, the top searched destinations for stays of 5 days or more between December 23 and January 1 are as follows: New York City Experience the best of the holiday season in the Big Apple at the 1920’s classic landmark hotel Martinique New York on Broadway, Curio Collection by Hilton. The hotel is conveniently located in the heart of midtown, offering unparalleled access to all of NYC’s famous holiday happenings. Guests can Read more
WestJet pilots have called off a potential strike. But it’s not clear when service will return to normal. Duncan Dee, a former chief operating officer at Air Canada, told Global News it will likely be until mid-next-week before WestJet is back operating at 100 per cent capacity. “What’s happened over the last few days, you should look at it in terms of a giant jigsaw puzzle, which was already well put together — and then WestJet comes in and they have to take each and every piece of that jigsaw puzzle apart,” he said. The website Flight Aware reported that some 107 Read more
The holiday travel season is proving to be a disaster for many. WestJet is cancelling hundreds of flights in British Columbia, Ontario and Quebec due to major winter storms that are wreaking havoc with holiday travel. Air Canada today said it pre-cancelled an undetermined number of flights in Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal due to the impending storm, while Porter Airlines said “many” Ontario-based flights will likely be cancelled starting this afternoon. Sunwing says it has had to cancel many southbound flights from Western Canada through until Christmas. Airlines say they’re doing their best to cope with what some weather experts Read more
There are more signs today that the Justin Trudeau government is set to drop vaccine mandates and put an end to the unpopular ArriveCAN app, perhaps within the next two weeks. The mask mandate for flights within Canada also appears up for debate. Writing in the Toronto Sun today, columnist Brian Lilley reports that “The ArriveCan app may no longer be mandatory and other remaining travel requirements and restrictions for air travel in Canada could soon be removed. If all goes well, masking could even be made optional within the next few weeks.” Lilley said he’s had conversations with senior Read more
