Gun violence in Mexico forced the temporary closure of two airports, stranding more Canadians. CP24 says Canadian tourists were trapped inside a Mexican hotel Thursday as buses that were supposed to take them to an airport and safely home burned outside. “It’s just chaos,” said Tina Dahl of Edmonton, whose six family members stranded in the popular tourist city of Mazatlan were supposed to fly out Thursday night. The government of Canada travel advice Twitter feed states that “there is widespread violence in Sinaloa State since the arrest of a (drug) cartel leader. The Culiacán and Mazatlán airports are closed. Read more
Delta Airlines
An historic “weather bomb” is making a mockery of airline schedules and ruining holiday plans for travelers across North America. With snow starting to build in some cities and fierce winds bringing record-low temperatures to many parts of the U.S., FlightAware reports 4,700 U.S. flight cancellations as of 1 p.m. Eastern Time. The website showed 35% of all outbound flights have been cancelled at New York’s LaGuardia Airport, while Detroit had a 43% cancellation rate and Seattle 46%. Chicago O’Hare was showing 23% of flights cancelled. Cleveland and Buffalo were much worse. Cleveland was showing a 70% cancellation rate, while Read more
After more than two and-a-half years of strict COVID-19 controls, the government of Hong Kong says it’s putting an end to mandatory quarantine rules for international travellers. CNN reports that under rules that come into play on Monday, September 26, incoming travellers will be required to undergo three days of self-monitoring on arrival. Travellers will not be allowed to visit certain places during that period, including restaurants and bars. They’ll also have to take PCR tests on days, two, four and six after arriving, followed by another rapid antigen test. It’s still a fair bit of control, but it’s a Read more
There are more positive signs pointing to a travel rebound this year and in the coming years, both for leisure and business travel. According to a report from Reuters, Spanish tourism officials expect the country’s tourism gross domestic product to reach $186 billion CAD in 2022. That would be 88% of pre-pandemic levels, versus just 57% for last year. Officials said they expect to return to full pre-pandemic activity by 2023. It’s not just Spain that’s painting a rosy tourism picture. The Global Business Travel Association this week said global business travel spending is expected to surge in 2022. The Read more
Major cuts by Air Canada. New tests for the trouble Boeing 737 MAX. Plus, Delta joins with the Mayo Clinic, a spiffy new hotel project for Halifax and an update on Australia and tourism. My Future of Travel blog for June 30. Air Canada Closing Operations at 8 Canadian Airports, Slashing 30 Domestic Routes It’s a perfectly understandable move given the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on Canada. But it’s a devastating loss for many Canadian communities. And the company says there could be more changes coming soon. Air Canada said today that it is indefinitely suspending service on 30 Read more
