This Week's Travel News

By Bruce Parkinson, Takeoffeh.com - Monday, June 28, 2010 at 2:53 PM - 0 Comments

Stop The Presses: There’s Good News For Canada’s Airlines
In an industry where the sky always seems to be falling, Canada’s airline sector is enjoying a period relatively free of turbulence.
As Reuters reported this week, shares in Air Canada and WestJet are both up by more than 20 per cent and analysts see more big gains on the horizon. It’s an impressive turnaround from last spring when Air Canada was on the brink of a second trip into bankruptcy and perennially-profitable WestJet was showing double-digit earnings declines. “Things are a lot better than a year ago. Demand has come back quite a bit in Canada and globally,” said Canaccord Genuity analyst David Tyerman. Even the highly lucrative first-and business-class travel is slowly making a comeback, which is critical for Air Canada, which makes most of its money from passengers in the front of the plane. At the same time, many consumers are still spending cautiously, which is good news for WestJet and its low-cost model. When analyst predictions are averaged, the expectation is that AC stock will reach $3.96 in the next 12 months, more than double the $1.92 its B shares closed at last week. The market expectations for WestJet are not as dramatic, largely because its stock was less battered during the recession as it was one of the few North American airlines to stay profitable throughout. On average, analysts expect WestJet’s stock to reach $16.59 in a year’s time, 29 per cent above its $12.85 close at the end of last week.

Full Steam Ahead Or Cruising For A Bruising?
The cruise industry is placing a very big bet that the global economy will recover. How big? Think billions, lots of billions. The shiny new Norwegian Epic is readying for its inaugural sailing this week. At a cost of $1.2-billion and a passenger capacity of 4,200, Epic is the most eagerly anticipated ship launch of the year, but certainly not the only one. In fact, more than a dozen large cruise ships will take to the water this year, after a similar number in 2009. Besides Epic, major launches this year include P&O’s Azura, Cunard’s Queen Elizabeth, Celebrity’s Eclipse and Royal Caribbean’s Allure of the Seas. In total, this year’s new ships will carry well over 25,000 passengers, who have to be replaced about once a week on average. Will the industry fill all these new berths? The cruise industry’s growth has been phenomenal over the past 20 years, average 7.4% growth each year. And as the market has matured in North America, cruise lines have been aggressive in seeking new markets, especially in the UK and Europe. But still, close to 80% of cruisers are from North America and not everyone is convinced that the North American economy – especially the U.S. portion – is heading back to health. As the Christian Science Monitor recently put it: “Ships are getting bigger and Americans are getting poorer.” The publication pointed to a forecast of 1.6-million personal bankruptcies in the U.S. this year, coupled with an unemployment rate near 10%. Those figures certainly encourage pause for thought, but so far the cruise business seems to have weathered the storm remarkably well – Carnival Cruise Corp. for one just posted a $250-million profit for the second quarter. And the industry continues to generate massive amounts of breathless press. Epic is all over the news this week and on Allure of the Seas, sister to world’s largest cruise ship Oasis of the Seas, made headlines recently when it announced that popular cartoon characters from DreamWorks will form a major part of onboard family entertainment is readying for its inaugural sailing this week Royal Caribbean obviously hopes the allure of cute cartoon Shrek and Donkey will keep the cruisers coming.

Big In Dubai: That’s The Way They Roll
In Dubai, it seems that small is just not an option. Take the Dubai World Central Al-Maktoum International airport: still under construction, the plan is to build the largest airport in the world with five runways, four terminal buildings and an annual capacity for 160 million passengers and 12 million tonnes of cargo. The airport will be ten times the size of the current Dubai International Airport, which ranked as the 15^th busiest in the world in 2009, processing over 40 million passengers. Al-Maktoum saw its first test cargo flight land successfully this week, heralding the beginning of partial operations within a week or so. The airport is part of a $33-billion dollar Dubai World Central DWC project that will take the Emirate’s position as a global transport hub to a new level. The master plan includes six inter-related developments — the world’s largest airport, Dubai Logistics City, DWC Aviation City, DWC Residential City, DWC Commercial City and DWC Golf City. The names aren’t exactly compelling, but the scale of the projects is vast. As a point of comparison, the world’s busiest airport, Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson, served close to 90 million passengers in 2009, while Canada’s largest airport, Toronto’s Pearson International, handled just over 30 million passengers in 2009.

By: Bruce Parkinson
Bruce Parkinson is a travel industry journalist and regular contributor to Takeoffeh.com as well as sister company, OpenJaw.com

Photo Credits: epic.ncl.com, en.wikipedia.org

Virgin's Second Coming: Will This One Last?

By Takeoffeh.com - Monday, June 28, 2010 at 2:49 PM - 0 Comments

U.S. low-cost carrier Virgin America launched its first international route this week from LA to Toronto, but it’s not the first Virgin to land in Canada.

Sister airline Virgin Atlantic launched service to London from Toronto in June 2001. At the inaugural event, a confident Virgin founder Richard Branson told TakeOffeh’s Nina Slawek: “Toronto is not an easy market but we really do expect in 50 years to still be around.”

A couple of months later the September 11 attacks sent the aviation industry into a spiral. A few months after that, Virgin Atlantic pulled out. While the terrorist attacks certainly contributed to Virgin Atlantic’s departure, the Toronto-London route is fiercely competitive, led by Air Canada and British Airways, with substantial seasonal charter traffic to boot.

On the Los Angeles and San Francisco routes, Virgin America is launching with daily service to Toronto. Air Canada will be the main competition, and as expected, new competition has brought its fangs out. AC has boosted its seat capacity in the Toronto-California market by more than 50% in advance of Virgin America’s arrival and is undercutting Virgin America’s fares with rates as low as $187 one-way, before taxes, between Toronto and San Francisco for weekdays in mid-July.

“Virgin America is a low-cost carrier unlike Virgin Atlantic so I am sure they will have a different strategy,” says airline industry expert Chris Rivers. “It will be tough against AC though, because they will match their prices and they have the formidable Aeroplan.”

As the Globe and Mail reports, Virgin America chairman Donald Carty (who is also chairman of Toronto-based Porter Airlines) says price isn’t the only factor in route success. “Many start-ups have come to the market with the promise to the customer of low prices. That’s great, but the customer wants and expects more. We will be delivering a travel experience, too,” he said.

The Virgin America ‘experience’ earned the carrier a ‘Best Domestic Airline’ rating from Travel + Leisure magazine in both 2008 and 2009. Features include mood lighting, inflight Wi-Fi, a self-serve mini bar and snack trolley and a dynamic entertainment system known as ‘Red.’

It’s a sexy product for sure, but Carty knows Virgin America is in for a fight. “Air Canada isn’t a naive carrier. They will compete and won’t give up turf easily. If we see a strong economic recovery, there is probably room for success on routes for both entities.”

It should also be noted that Air Canada was voted “Best Airline in North America” by readers of Global Travel magazine in its annual survey of business travellers.

Virgin America is hoping for the best, and already looking at Vancouver as a second Canadian destination. Carty sees the opportunity to tap into a large community of Canadians working in the entertainment industry in Los Angeles, and the high-tech biz in San Francisco.

Once the G8 crowds clear out of town, Branson will be back for an official inauguration on June 29^th. In true Virgin style it will be a party, with red-hot Canadian hip hop artist Drake among the attendees.

By: Bruce Parkinson
Bruce Parkinson is a travel industry journalist and regular contributor to Takeoffeh.com as well as sister company, OpenJaw.com

Photo Credits: en.wikipedia.org

Will it fly again?

By Chris Sorensen - Thursday, June 24, 2010 at 1:40 PM - 2 Comments

Reuters

The Concorde, the world’s first supersonic commercial aircraft, made its final transatlantic flight in October 2003. After a 3½-hour flight from New York, the pointy-nosed jet touched down at London’s Heathrow Airport in front of a crowd that had gathered to say goodbye. But now enthusiasts are hoping to get the Concorde off the ground once again at an estimated cost of $22 million—ideally in time for the opening ceremonies of the 2012 Olympics in London.

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Will Porter lift off?

By Chris Sorensen - Thursday, June 10, 2010 at 1:20 PM - 5 Comments

Getty Images

Ask anyone on Bay Street who has flown on Toronto’s Porter Airlines and you’re likely to hear rave reviews on everything from the swank airport lounge to the proximity of Porter’s main base of operations, at Toronto’s island airport, to the city’s downtown skyscrapers. But just because the city’s financial movers and shakers like travelling with Porter doesn’t necessarily mean they want to own shares in it.

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WestJet's big plans to conquer Air Canada and then the world

By Chris Sorensen - Thursday, May 27, 2010 at 6:51 AM - 35 Comments

LARRY MACDOUGAL / CP

For most big airlines, having a chief executive with a long and accomplished history in the business would be considered a no-brainer. Not at WestJet. Since its launch nearly 15 years ago, the remarkably successful low-cost carrier has made a point of ditching industry conventions whenever possible. Economy-class only. No connecting flights. Friendly staff. And, until recently, chief executives who generally came from outside the industry.

So eyebrows were naturally raised earlier this year when WestJet, based in Calgary, named industry veteran Gregg Saretsky as a replacement for outgoing CEO Sean Durfy, who was formerly the head of Enmax, a utility company. Durfy, in turn, had replaced WestJet co-founder and chairman Clive Beddoe, who, although a hobby pilot, was in the real estate business prior to launching the airline in 1996.

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This Week's Travel News: News you need to know

By Bruce Parkinson, Takeoffeh.com - Monday, May 17, 2010 at 11:45 AM - 0 Comments

The Americans Are Watching
Flying from Toronto to Cancun? The Americans want to know who you are. Why? Because you’ll be flying over their airspace. Coming this December, new U.S. ‘Secure Flight’ rules require Canadian airlines to provide personal information on passengers flying over the home of the brave. If your name happens to show up on a U.S. watch list or no-fly list, you could be stuck on the ground – even though you aren’t even landing in the U.S. When you consider that a large percentage of Canadian flights do pass above U.S. territory, it’s a daunting proposition. And while Canada’s privacy watchdog isn’t happy about these new rules, Chantal Bernier says there isn’t a doggone thing she can do about it: “There is a limit that is beyond us — and that is United States sovereignty over U.S. airspace. Geography works against us here,” Bernier told MPs at parliamentary hearings into the matter. Of course 99.9% of travellers shouldn’t be affected, but we all know that no-fly lists are not perfect, and officials say ‘false positive’ results will take 50 to 60 days to clear up – in other words, the trip is off. As Canwest News Service reported, Bernier told the committee that another concern is that passenger information supplied to the U.S. could be used for other purposes, including law enforcement and immigration.

Room With A View? For $5 We’ll Uncover The Window
With airlines now charging for everything from (literally) soup to nuts – and earning billions in the process — hotels have been watching with envy. Now some of them are taking a page out of the airline industry’s ‘unbundled’ approach by charging extra for anything from towels to air conditioning. As Consumer Traveler reports, the most extreme example is Asian budget hotel chain Tune Hotels, which boasts the marketing tagline ‘5-star sleeping experience at 1-star price.’ For one very low price – basic rates start as low as $5 per night in Asia – guests get a room, bed and bathroom. You can make the room as comfy as you wish by paying additional fees for things like air conditioning, hair dryers, toiletries and even towels. In September the chain will make its first foray outside Asia with a London, England location. Starting at 9 square metres (97 square feet), Tune hotel rooms are a little bigger than ‘pod’ or ‘capsule’ hotels like Yotel. One thing Tune does offer is a decent bed, which it says is custom-made by bedmakers who supply 5-star hotels – hence the ‘5-star sleeping experience’ claim. Don’t expect a mad rush by major hotel chains to follow Tune’s lead. In a somewhat counter-intuitive twist, luxury hotels already charge for ‘extras’ like Internet, parking and room safes, while mid-market hotels tend to get by on the value offered through an inclusive package where things like Internet, parking and breakfast are included. Dorothy Dowling, senior VP marketing and sales for 2,200 hotel-strong Best Western told TakeOffeh: “The mid-market will continue to sell the value package.” Will consumers embrace bare-bones hotels? One reader comment on the Consumer Traveler story shows there’s definitely a market for it: “Well, I did it! I refused the towel, and used my bedsheet instead.”

Two Best Hotel Lists – Wildly Divergent Results
Two online giants owned by the same company have each produced lists of the world’s top reviewed hotels, but the lists are so different they leave you wondering what to believe. The ranking of top ten European and U.S. hotels from both Expedia and TripAdvisor – which is owned by Expedia — reveal no common names whatsoever. One U.S. hotel featured in the Expedia’s global top ten didn’t even make the top 30 hotels in its own city, let alone the world, based on TripAdvisor reviews. In fact, none of the top ten hotels featured on the Expedia list are featured among TripAdvisor’s 719 top properties. So are these lists of any use at all? Expedia representatives say that it uses a “mathematical formula” to rank its properties, with over 1 million traveller reviews as the most influential factor. TripAdvisor’s approach is similar, although it claims more reviews. But Expedia also takes into account the views of 400 Expedia “market managers,” who contribute “their insight and firsthand knowledge of their destination’s best hotels.” And Expedia’s version does have another advantage: to post a review, travellers must have booked through Expedia. That’s different from TripAdvisor, where any registered user can post a review without having to prove they have ever stayed there. Critics – especially hoteliers – say that fact leaves the TripAdvisor system more prone to manipulation.

Air Canada Makes Progress, But There’s A Long Road Ahead
The recovery is underway for Air Canada, but the airline still has a long way to go, as the Montreal Gazette reported this week. “This is not a sprint, it’s a marathon,” CEO Calin Rovanescu told analysts after the carrier reported a Q1 operating loss of $126 million, down from a loss of $188 million a year ago. The net loss was $85 million – better than analysts expected, but not a result to send stock soaring. And that stock has a long way to soar, considering that it was issued at $20 and now hovers around $2. Analysts point to a number of factors impacting AC success: fierce competition, low yields, volatile fuel prices, less cash on hand than its peers and ongoing labour uncertainty. The airline is doing a number of things very well – it continues to fill the vast majority of its seats (83% in April) and has successfully weeded out tens of millions in costs. But the Icelandic volcano stung the carrier for about $20-million, and business travellers still aren’t willing to pay premium prices. As Peter Hadekel points out in the Gazette, Air Canada doesn’t have a lot of wiggle room if things go wrong. And, in the travel industry something always seems to be going wrong.

By: Bruce Parkinson
Bruce Parkinson is a travel industry journalist and regular contributor to Takeoffeh.com as well as sister company, OpenJaw.com

Photo Credits: tunehotels.com, carlosphotos, Fotogma, aircanada.com

Were the pilots of the doomed Polish jet obedient to a fault?

By George Jonas - Saturday, April 17, 2010 at 11:30 AM - 67 Comments

Sergei Karpukhin/Reuters

Last Saturday the city of Smolensk, Russia, was shrouded in heavy fog. Before departing Warsaw, Polish President Lech Kaczynski’s flight crew would have studied the weather charts. Fog forms at dawn and often dissipates. Military pilots Capt. Arkadiusz Protasiuk, 36, and Maj. Robert Grzywna, 36, probably expected it to lift by 10:30 a.m., the estimated arrival time for their planeload of military, business, political and ecclesiastical dignitaries at Smolensk Air Base.

On this day the fog lingered. Visibility was insufficient for landing. According to one report, the pilots tried three times. On their fourth attempt, the three-engine Tupolev contacted trees about a kilometre from the runway and broke apart. All aboard perished.

It was a puzzling accident. Crashing in fog, though still available to venturesome pilots in the 21st century, belongs to an earlier age of aviation. The weather may not have changed much since powered flight began, but our ways of coping with it have. Aviators have developed drills, procedures, avionics and navigational aids to make flying in inclement weather almost as safe as flying in blue skies, even if not quite as predictable.

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Bombardier’s Big Gamble

By Chris Sorensen - Thursday, February 25, 2010 at 1:00 PM - 3 Comments

UPDATE: Bombardier has reached a deal to sell 40 of its yet-to-be-built CSeries aircraft with Indianapolis-based Republic Airways Holdings, which operates six regional carriers in the United States. The deal, valued at little over US$3 billion, is Bombardier’s first in North America for the fuel efficient 110- to 130-seat family of aircraft. It includes options for Republic to double the size of the order down the road.  Some observers have expressed concern about a lack of orders for the $3.4 billion CSeries project amid tough times for the airline industry. Prior to inking the agreement with Republic, Bombardier had firm orders for just 50 of the planes despite officially launching the program last summer.  The CSeries is larger than Bombardier’s current line of regional jets and will compete head-to-head with smaller aircraft built by industry heavyweights Boeing and Airbus, a first for Bombardier. The first CSeries aircraft are scheduled to roll off the assembly line in Montreal in 2013.

Gary Scott has, fittingly, spent a lot of time among the clouds lately. The head of commercial aviation for Bombardier is just back from Europe to pitch the plane-maker’s new CSeries aircraft, a state-of-the-art jet that, once it rolls off the production line in 2013, would put Bombardier in direct competition with giants Boeing and Airbus for the first time in its history. Next, he is off to visit a potential customer on this side of the Atlantic. Then he wings his way to Singapore, where he was scheduled to meet with dozens of airlines and aircraft leasing companies at a six-day air show.

The globe-trotting is part of the full court press that Bombardier is putting on some 150 potential customers who have expressed interest in its US$3.4-billion CSeries project, a 110- to 130-seat family of aircraft that targets what executives believe is an underserved market. An idea first hatched six years ago, the CSeries will be bigger than Bombardier’s existing regional jets, which top out at around 100 seats, but would be distinguished from the smallest versions of Boeing’s 737 family and Airbus’s A320 family by more fuel-efficient engines, state-of-the-art technology and lightweight composite components.

So far, though, Bombardier has notched just two orders, with firm commitments for a meagre 50 planes (Germany’s Lufthansa has ordered 30, and a leasing company 20). And it backed away from a prediction that it would announce a third order before the end of the company’s fiscal year on Jan. 31. “We are in advanced state of discussions with some customers, but the timing of final contracts and orders is always difficult to predict, particularly in these difficult times,” says Scott. “I do anticipate an order coming from these discussions in the first half of the year.”

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Why The Airlines Won't Let You Call In Sick

By Sarah Dawson, Takeoffeh.com - Thursday, November 19, 2009 at 3:17 PM - 2 Comments

Last week, news headlines thundered about an Air Canada passenger who informed the airline she had H1N1 and expected sympathetic assistance in rebooking her trip. Air Canada merely offered to change her travel date for a large fee. The passenger – who believed she was doing the right thing by letting the airline know – was shocked at the treatment.

Most airlines such as Air Canada and WestJet are actually under no obligation to re-accommodate passengers on another flight whether they suffer from H1N1 or a stomach bug. Nor will they offer a full refund if the conditions of their ticket do not allow any cancellations.

For the airlines and tour operators, it all comes down to basic economics, and the effect supply and demand has on selling prices. Imagine a passenger booking a flight for $99 in a seat sale in January, and then calling to change the flight to a March Break departure when everyone else on that flight will have paid at least $699.

With tour operators, where there is a hotel booked as well as an air seat, changing the original ticket can have financial implications for the tour operator. As such, they tend to charge higher change fees and cancellation penalties because the hotels they deal with dock them for holding the room. For instance, if you cancel a booking in early December for a Christmas holiday, chances are you will not get any money back because the hotel will charge the tour operator a full penalty.

A little research before making any changes is extremely advisable. There will almost always be a difference in selling prices, so be prepared to pay more. As far  as a refund is concerned — they may deduct a change fee, but is not unreasonable to ask.

The key terms to look for are: full cancellations allowed up to departure, or no (low) change fees, whatever the circumstances. With respect to H1N1, if the provider’s policy does not state specifically that cancellations or changes are allowed if the passenger has H1N1, then they are probably not.

For any packages booked with a tour operator, there are only a few companies currently offering H1N1 protection. Sunwing offers a “Worry Free” cancellation plan for $49 per person, allowing cancellations up to 3 hours prior to the flight departure for any reason. Signature offers a very similar “Care-Free Cancellation Waiver” plan for $50 or $60 per person, allowing cancellations to 24 hours prior to the flight departure. WestJet Vacations allow cancellations outside of 21 days for a $75 fee. While passengers may not get cash refunds, receiving the full booking value in future travel credit is certainly reasonable.

Passengers should also look toward travel insurance as a means of protection. RBC Insurance, the largest provider of travel insurance in the Canadian market, confirmed to Take Off eh! that their Trip Cancellation Insurance does cite H1N1, or similar flu-like illness, as an “emergency medical condition and the policy holder would be eligible for the reimbursement of the non-refundable portion of their prepaid travel arrangements, subject to the terms and conditions of the policy”. This requires confirmation from a physician, as with any other medical condition. The coverage applies as long as the passenger does not have the H1N1 virus as a pre-condition, or made a booking for travel to a destination for which the government has issued a formal H1N1 warning after the warning was issued.

In short, whether people have the flu or any other infectious condition, in many instances, the claim can be difficult to prove. It’s a very murky area for airlines and tour operators to navigate and set fair policies for. But bear in mind that an air carrier also reserves the right to deny boarding to someone who is visibly not well enough to fly.

From the airline and tour operators’ perspective, is it fair to single out any type of flu over say, asthma or strep throat? And why should travel have to follow different rules than any other service providers such as theatres or sports vernues? Travellers have to protect themselves with the tools available to them, or simply not travel.

By: Sarah Dawson

Photo Credit: macky_ch

Friendl(ier) skies

By Jason Kirby - Thursday, September 18, 2008 at 6:08 PM - 0 Comments

Finally. With oil prices hovering around $93 a barrel, well off their punishing high of $145, airlines have started to axe some of the extra fees they’ve tacked on to travelers’ tickets in recent months. Air Canada’s second checked-in bag surcharge: gone. WestJet’s fuel surcharge: gone. Air Canada’s fuel surcharge: um, well, that’s still there actually, though the airline is at least being upfront about it. In a rather bizarre upbeat statement to customers, it said: “Great news. The fuel surcharge is now included in all our North America fares.” Clearly Air Canada’s concept of good news isn’t the same as mine. But these days I’ll take it where I can get it.

Zoom…splatt

By Steve Maich - Thursday, August 28, 2008 at 3:33 PM - 0 Comments

I really feel for all the hundreds of passenger who’ve been left stranded by Zoom Airlines’ shut down today. Undoubtedly, there will be people who miss vacations, or family reunions because of the carrier’s demise.

Of course, this will come as no consolation to people stuck in airport terminals, much less the employees likely to lose their jobs, but this really is a good thing in the long term, both for the airline industry and for the public. As I argued a couple of weeks ago, we need to see more airlines shut down, and for others to get swallowed up through mergers and acquisitions.
The fact that Zoom was unable to secure new financing to keep flying is, in a way, an encouraging sign, even though its a total drag for those directly affected.

$675 million

By Jason Kirby - Tuesday, July 29, 2008 at 1:54 PM - 0 Comments

By my reckoning that’s roughly how much Air Canada has saved in fuel costs since oil started it’s downward spiral a couple of weeks ago. Last month when crude was marching higher, and the airline sought to justify its decision to layoff 2,000 workers and cut capacity, the company said every one dollar increase in the price of oil added $26 million to its fuel bill. At the time the company estimated its fuel bill would be an extra $1 billion in 2008.

Only now, the price of oil is falling. It’s at $121.30 a barrel today, down from a peak of $147.27 earlier this month. Assuming the $26 million figure still applies, that’s a saving of $675,220,000. Don’t expect any cheering in the Air Canada boardroom. Oil prices are still at stratospheric levels compared to where they were even a year ago, and the economics of running an airline will still be grueling even if oil falls another $25. But I wouldn’t be surprised if the recent fuel savings come up in the face of this, this and this.

Flying is hell

By Steve Maich - Thursday, July 24, 2008 at 11:12 AM - 0 Comments

No this is not a post about how my 9:00 pm flight out of Pearson was canceled last Thursday. Mind you – it’s a pretty good story. (Have you ever had a flight canceled because the plane’s parking brake refused to release? I have. I finally made it to Las Vegas, only 15 hours later than planned.)

It’s not about Jason Kirby’s excellent cover story from last week either.

This is about my friend Derek DeCloet’s column in today’s Globe and Mail. Derek takes a hard look at the unbelievably low market values ascribed to major airlines today. Seems like just about everybody is expecting the industry to tumble right back into the bankruptcy disaster it only emerged from a couple of years ago. My favourite snippet: “Right now, Southwest, Delta, Northwest, American, United, JetBlue and US Airways combined aren’t worth as much as Canadian National Railway.” Amazing.

Derek asks why Air Canada is being priced as a distressed company when it is not (yet) is any real financial danger. He goes on to answer the question, looking at debt, leases, warrants, break-up value etc. (Seriously – you should read it.) But there is one aspect of the flight experience that he doesn’t mention: customers are being asked to pay substantially more, for a service that is getting substantially worse. Nobody knows that better than the business guys who are flying these airlines on a regular basis. We tend to take for granted that we’re all hooked on air travel and that will not change, but price and service have a funny way of messing with our habits. If oil prices stay above $100 a barrel for an extended period, I believe people will fly a lot less than they do now. The stories are already beginning to emerge of people opting not to fly home for holidays, and companies looking for ways to avoid sending people to distant meetings and conventions. People tend to assume that demand for air travel is inelastic and eternal. But then, we used to think the demand for SUVs was pretty inelastic too.

Biz Fix

By Jason Kirby - Tuesday, July 8, 2008 at 1:25 PM - 0 Comments

In the money: Airline crisis? What airline crisis? WestJet inked a deal today with Southwest Airlines to share passengers on cross border flights. So at a time when Air Canada and other legacy carriers are dramatically scaling back their flights, Westjet will shortly be able to sell tickets to any of Southwest’s 64 U.S. destinations, and vice versa. (Like old faithful, the Dallas-based airline announced the agreement by trucking out that most Canadian of clichés: “Want to Get Away – Eh?) This is a huge deal for the Calgary carrier, which modeled itself on Southwest’s low fare structure. It’s kind of like getting a call from your mentor to come and be his partner.

Trading down: BC’s beleaguered forestry sector gets far, far, far (I could go on) less attention than Ontario’s struggling auto industry, but the two have a lot in common, namely they are both bathed in layoff notices. In some northern communities, like Mackenzie, every single mill has gone under. Today another mill near Campbell River closed and another 440 people lost their jobs, bringing the total number for the province’s forestry sector to 10,000.

Number cruncher: We’re a glum lot in Canada. Almost as glum as the Americans, if the latest consumer confidence data is any indication. According to the Conference Board of Canada, consumer confidence has Continue…

Airline service – how low can it go?

By Jason Kirby - Thursday, July 3, 2008 at 1:33 AM - 0 Comments

A recent study by J.D. Power found airline customer satisfaction is at a three year low, and falling like a rock. No wonder. These days passengers must bear the brunt of gasoline surcharges, long line-ups, overbooked aircraft, seemingly arbitrary cancellations and fees for checked bags that invariably wind up on the opposite side of the globe from where they’re supposed to be. And the experts say it’s only going to get worse.

We want to hear your airline horror stories for an upcoming feature in the magazine. Are things getting worse out there on the tarmac? What’s it like flying today’s unfriendly skies? Drop us an e-mail or comment on this post and let us know.