Airlines

Arbitrator makes AC, IAMAW decision

Air Canada reports that it -- along with the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAMAW) -- has received the decision of the arbitrator, Michel Picher, in the final offer selection arbitration conducted in accordance with the process legislated by the federal government in the Protecting Air Service Act. The arbitrator's selection of Air Canada's final offer concludes a new collective agreement with the IAMAW following negotiations and mediated talks that took place over a period of 14 months. The five-year collective agreement is in effect until March 31, 2016. The...

Jet Airways streamlines North American operations

Effective Sept. 10, Jet Airways will be consolidating its twice daily services between North America, Brussels and India, concentrating on two North American gateways - Toronto's Pearson International Airport and New York's Newark-Liberty International Airport. Daily flights from and to each airport connect seamlessly in Brussels with Jet Airways flights to and from Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai. Jet Airways' passengers formerly booked to and from JFK will be automatically switched to Newark-Liberty flights....

IATA takes the initiative

During its 68th AGM in Beijing, IATA -- along with the Airline Reporting Corporation (ARC) -- launched the Direct Data Service (DDS), describing it as an evolution of its PaxIS product into a "more powerful business intelligence offering." And the association noted as well that the understanding of travel patterns facilitated by PaxIS is already helping airlines, airports, governments, and tourism businesses among other customers. In order to move beyond the relentless legal challenges by GDSs to PaxIS (primarily concerning data control), over the last two years, IATA worked to obtain airline...

SATA expands services to Spain

Portugal's SATA Internacional Airlines is expanding its services to Spain in conjunction with a codeshare agreement with TAP. All flights are available for consultation via major GDS systems, and are marked with the S4 airline code. In addition to cities currently offered such as Madrid, Barcelona and Málaga -- now Valencia, Bilbao and Seville can also be routed via SATA's Toronto-Lisbon service for onward connections. Some destinations can also be routed via the YYZ-Porto service. Las Palmas in the Canary Islands is also available via Ponta Delgada-Azores. The Canary Island flights are...

SriLankan Airlines to join oneworld

SriLankan Airlines is getting set to join the oneworld alliance. The airline's election as a oneworld member designate was announced as the chief executives of the alliance's member airlines gathered at IATA's 2012 World Air Transport Summit, which opened in Beijing today. SriLankan is expected to be implemented into oneworld late next year, with Cathay Pacific serving as its sponsor and supporting the airline through its alliance implementation program. SriLankan already codeshares with oneworld member designate Malaysia Airlines -- and today announced agreement in principle to codeshare...

Porter expands Thunder Bay service

Porter Airlines is adding a third Saturday roundtrip flight between Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport and Thunder Bay, beginning June 30. The new weekend flight is in addition to four existing Sunday roundtrips and five options every weekday....

Maximize aviation’s economic benefits

In his state of the industry address at the 68th IATA AGM and World Air Transport Summit in Beijing, IATA director general and CEO, Tony Tyler called on governments around the world to be stronger partners in maximizing aviation's economic and social benefits. Tyler told his AGM audience: "Our industry's license to grow is earned through working with governments to constantly make flying even safer, more secure, and more sustainable. Now we need an agenda to achieve tax regimes that do not kill growth, regulation that facilitates growth, and infrastructure that can efficiently accommodate...

A revised outlook for 2012

IATA has released its revised industry outlook for 2012, indicating that global industry profits are expected to be $3.0 billion, unchanged from the last update in March. The airline industry association notes that a fall in oil prices, stronger than expected growth in passenger traffic and a bottoming out of the freight market are driving some improvements in the profitability outlook. However, IATA also said that this is offset by the continued and deepening European sovereign debt crisis, which has led markets to expect a further deterioration and damage to economic growth, the adverse...