New and enhanced flights to exotic destinations such as Singapore and Stockholm, plus 120 destinations in North America. Air Canada has released its plan for the busy summer travel season, and it features a 30% growth in capacity to the Asia-Pacific region, including flights to Osaka, Seoul and Singapore. There’s also a 25% boost for key leisure destinations in Southern Europe compared to last year, including flights to Stockholm and Madrid. “We continue to see strong demand for southern European destinations, and have increased capacity to countries such as Italy, Greece and especially Spain for this summer,” said Mark Galardo, Read more
Ottawa
Toronto Pearson is hoping to be on Santa’s “good” list this winter. Ahead of the 2023-2024 winter travel and holiday season, Toronto Pearson International Airport today announced a number of operational improvements designed to meet and maintain its readiness throughout the winter season. These initiatives include increased staffing, expanded deicing capacity, newly commissioned advanced snowplows, and the implementation of cutting-edge predictive technologies for weather and delay forecasting. An innovative AI system has also been put into place for more efficient baggage handling through the proactive identification and resolution of common, potential issues that may otherwise interrupt the flow of operations. Read more
If you’ve noticed air fares are more reasonable these days, you’re definitely onto something. The latest StatsCan report states that consumers paid less for air transportation (21.1%) in September on a year-over-year basis. That coincides with a gradual increase in flights offered by airlines over the previous 12 months, the agency said. Robert Kokonis, president and managing director at AirTrav Inc., told me that the StatsCan figures estimate the average change of airfares within Canada and between Canadian cities and international destinations. “I am not surprised given the growth of seat capacity recovery over the past 12 months, particularly in Read more
Canada has a new tourism strategy aimed at cementing the country as a top global destination. The new strategy, announced today in Niagara Falls, “will unleash the full potential of Canadian tourism and cement Canada as a top global destination” through the following five priorities: Investing in Canada’s tourism assets Embracing recreation and the great outdoors Partnering to grow Indigenous tourism Attracting more international events Improving coordination through a federal ministerial council Attracting more international events would presumably help Canada’s biggest cities. Given the interest in indigenous tourism around the world, that also seems like a good strategy (as well Read more
The pandemic may be over, but the pain continues for Canadian tourism and travel businesses. Forty-five per cent (45%) of Canada’s tourism businesses report that they are likely or somewhat likely to close within the next three years without government intervention into their mounting debt load, according to new research commissioned by the Tourism Industry Association of Canada (TIAC) and its provincial and territorial counterparts. The survey finds that 55 per cent of tourism sector businesses who share their views are somewhat not or not confident that their company will be able to make debt payments (principal and interest) that Read more
