Frustration soars at airport

Dozens of flights cancelled. U.S.-bound passengers complain of airlines' poor customer service

 

 

 

1. A flight information board shows the status of flights at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey.

Blizzard warnings and heavy storm surges hitting eastern Canada and the United States since Sunday have spared Montreal but left many holiday travellers frustrated at airports across the country.

The biggest lineups at Pierre Elliott Trudeau airport yesterday were for travellers stranded after their flights through New York, Newark, Boston, Atlanta and Philadelphia airports were cancelled or delayed.

One tear-streaked woman pushing a caddy piled with suitcases and a caged cat cried into her cellphone that she wouldn't be able to get a flight to Panama for five days.

Ticket-holders for popular Continental Airlines complained yesterday of shoddy customer service because the airline refused to respond to telephone calls after cancelling New York flights.

A recorded message directed travellers to Continental's website: " ... due to the weather in the northeast we're experiencing unusually high call volume and are unable to take your call."

Julien Dupasquier, 20, was to fly to Switzerland via New York with his two older brothers for a ski holiday and discovered on the website that the flight was cancelled.

"They should have let us know," he said, standing in a lineup of 50 people that snaked slowly up to a counter.

"They are telling us nothing," he said as his brother Pierre failed to find a direct flight to Geneva with another airline for under $2,500 per person.

"There goes plan B," he said. "We might have to cancel the trip altogether."

An Aeroports de Montreal spokesperson said at least 67 flights to and from the northeastern U.S. were cancelled yesterday, as well as another 22 domestic flights to and from the Maritimes.

Brendan Rehel, a McGill University track-and-field team member heading to San Diego for field training camp, said he was lucky to find a flight in three days.

"I was looking for any other route. I'm losing three days, but hey, bad weather happens," Rehel said.

But Carole St. Jean said she already lost 48 hours trying to rebook her boyfriend's flight back home to Davie, Fla., where Tom Nolan runs an equestrian business.

His Continental flight had been arranged via Air Canada, she explained, but rather than handling the booking, officials referred travellers to Continental. An anxious Nolan said he's worried about getting home to take care of business.

Several passengers, including Carol Renshaw, a West Island school teacher going to London via Newark, used their cellphones to hunt for new routes while inching forward in the lineup.

By late afternoon, Renshaw hit the jackpot. "I got a total refund and a flight on Air Canada at 7:30 p.m. that's direct and cheaper," she said.

Airline officials said New York and Newark airports were to reopen as of last night. But it's not clear when Montreal flights will resume.

Thermoses get extra scrutiny at airports

Canada has joined the U.S. in scrutinizing Thermoses and similar containers that airline passengers want to carry onto planes.
The Canadian Air Transport Security Authority announced on its website that passengers must remove insulated beverage containers from carry-ons and place them in a bin for inspection.
U.S. officials have also issued an alert about the containers.
Adm. James Winnefeld, head of the U.S. Northern Command, told The Associated Press on Friday that the Transportation Security Administration is "always trying to think ahead."
Winnefeld said officials responsible for homeland security are always a bit more alert over the holiday season. He says there has been a lot of chatter online about potential terror activity, but nothing specific.

Passenger sues Air Canada over missing gifts

An Air Canada passenger is suing the airline for $2,463, claiming someone stole gifts from his baggage. (CBC)
An Air Canada passenger is suing the airline, saying his Christmas presents were stolen from his baggage.
Peter Darcy flew from London to Vancouver on Dec. 15. Sometime after he checked his bags in with Air Canada at Heathrow airport, someone broke the locks on the luggage and took the gifts that were inside.
It wasn't until Darcy got his bags home on B.C.'s Sunshine Coast that he saw someone had tampered with the locks and made off with about $1,000 worth of valuables, he said.
He said he called Air Canada and asked the woman who answered if the theft was a matter for the airline or the RCMP.
"She asked me what an RCMP was," Darcy told CBC News. "I asked her where she was and she told me that she was in Delhi."
He reported the theft to police after what he said were two more days mostly spent on hold with Air Canada's automated phone systems.

Security concerns

On Thursday, Darcy filed suit in small-claims court for his losses and his time, which he calculated to be $2,463.
Darcy said it's easy to imagine more sinister baggage scenarios than what happened to him.
"One of the concerns I would have … is not just the fact that someone can break in and take something out. It's someone could break in and put something in."
The airline has been slow to respond, Darcy said.
"I'm as aggrieved at wasting four days of my time as I am of being a victim of the whole thing," Darcy said. "It's quite frustrating."
Air Canada declined to comment on the lawsuit and Darcy's allegations.

Canada signs airline agreement with Egypt

The Canadian government has signed an agreement intended to improve air service between Canada and egypt

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Air Canada is currently the only airline offering flights between Canada and Egypt. (Frank Gunn/Canadian Press) The expanded agreement allows airlines to operate more flights between Canada and Egypt.
Air Canada is currently the only airline offering flights between the two countries. EgyptAir, which is Air Canada's Star Alliance partner, offers flights only part of the year.
The new agreement also allows the airlines to offer service between the two countries using other carriers, in what are known as code-sharing services.
"This expanded agreement better responds to the needs of travellers between Canada and Egypt, and puts in place a framework that allows more convenient, direct air services," said Transport Minister Chuck Strahl.
It's the second air transport agreement signed by the government this week. On Tuesday, a new open skies agreement was signed with Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago.

Airlines' fortunes looking up in New Year

 

 

Improving yields for WestJet and Air Canada should continue into 2011, says analyst Cam Doerksen.

The return of business travellers, fuller planes and rising ticket prices meant a better year for the country's airlines, but industry watchers say emerging from the recession's lows was still a slow climb in 2010.
However, most anticipate that recovery hitting a faster pace in the new year.
"I would sort of characterize 2010, probably for both WestJet and Air Canada, as really sort of a slow recovery off a pretty bad year," said analyst Cam Doerksen, of National Bank Financial.
"Things have slowly improved.
"Things are certainly moving in the right direction through the year and that bodes well for 2011."
After a shaky 2009, when the number of people flying dropped steeply, the 2010 results were an improvement, even if they were increasing at a pace below predictions.
Both major airlines - WestJet and Air Canada - increased the number of seats available for sale and still saw fuller planes on average than the year before.
"Travel demand is slowly picking up and I think that's clearly a good sign that the rebound is sustainable," Doerksen said.
Also during the past year, WestJet saw an abrupt change in leadership, with Sean Durfy moving on and Gregg Saretsky taking over.
The Calgary-based carrier has also announced a run of new partnerships - including its first code-sharing deal, with Cathay Pacific, and a first U.S. partnership, with American Airlines - as well as introducing self-tagging kiosks for checked bags and its own rewards program.
Karl Moore, a professor at McGill University's Desautels Faculty of Management, said with Air Canada posting better financial results and WestJet resolving troubles with its reservation system, the industry's future looks good.
"Despite the considerable increase in capacity, particularly WestJet, the load factors, the number of passengers on the planes, has gone up fairly well," he said. "With an improving world economy, I think it should be a very strong, solid year for the industry in Canada."
He added that Saretsky seems to be a "good match with what they need these days," while Air Canada's CEO Calin Rovinescu is making positive moves to try to change the culture at the country's largest airline.
Doerksen said airline yields - the average revenue per mile per paying passenger - are also starting to slowly improve.
"The indication in the fall, in the last sort of quarterly results WestJet reported, and I think confirmed basically by Air Canada, is that they are seeing improvement on the pricing side," Doerksen said. "Once you start to get business travellers back on the planes, that's what really tends to drive the yields and if that continues I think that'll be good for both airlines.
"The yield momentum that we're seeing is probably going to continue into 2011."
The International Air Transport Association, reporting on the first 10 months of the year, found business and premium travel worldwide is up at an annualized rate of seven to eight per cent. Economy travel is three per cent over pre-recession highs, it stated.
But a stronger airline industry isn't always good news for passengers. Improvements in pricing for the airlines means the cost of tickets is rising - although analysts point out they're still not back to the prices of the boom years - and Canada's two major carriers will begin charging for a second checked bag in January.

Doerksen said there are a few things to watch in the new year that can affect airlines bottom lines.

One is the price of fuel and airport costs.

"We've had some strengthening of prices in 2010 and that'll probably be one of the more closely watched items in 2011. To some extent that's going to dictate pricing as well," he said. "There's a limit to how much they can raise the ticket price, so they need to find other ways to generate the revenue."

Doerksen said 2011 will be the first time in the past few years that domestic capacity will be stable, with airlines not adding a significant number of new flights within the country.

"For the most part they're putting all their capacity into their sun destinations and transporter markets," he added.

"I think the lesson that we've seen south of the border is the airlines can get pretty significant profitability improvements if they don't add much capacity, or cut capacity, and I think that's something the airlines in Canada have noted.

"And certainly it's in their best financial interests to keep capacity growth at a pretty reasonable rate."

WestJet shifted three planes scheduled to arrive next year and in 2012 to 2017.

Canada signs Caribbean airline agreements

1.             Canadians will soon find it easier to get to a pair of popular Caribbean destinations.

 

A Canadian jet sits on the tarmac at Montego Bay, Jamaica. Under a new agreement airlines from Canada, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago will have better access to each country.

  Canada has signed open skies air transportation agreements with Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago.
The deals give airlines more flexibility in selecting new routes, schedules and prices. Open skies agreements already exist with the Caribbean nations of Barbados and the Dominican Republic.
"These agreements will reinforce Canada's commercial relationship with two of our most significant trade partners in the Caribbean community," said Peter Van Loan, minister of international trade.
Air Jamaica currently flies out of Terminal 3 at Pearson International Airport in Toronto. Caribbean Airlines provides service between Toronto and various Caribbean destinations.
The agreements will allow new air services to begin immediately.
Canada now has open skies deals with 11 nations. It signed an enhanced agreement with Switzerland in October that allows airlines from either country to take on passengers in Switzerland or Canada, and carry them to other nations along the airline's route.
A similar deal with signed with El Salvador in April.

WestJet lease of bigger plane spurs long-haul talk

* Current fleet comprised only of Next-Gen 737 aircraft
* International routes proving to be profitable
VANCOUVER Dec 21 (Reuters) - WestJet Airlines Ltd's (WJA.TO) announcement on Tuesday that it will lease a big long-range plane has sparked speculation the airline is thinking of abandoning its commitment to a single-type fleet of planes so that it can fly longer-haul routes.
WestJet, Canada's second-biggest airline, said on Tuesday it will operate a leased Boeing 757-200 to provide nonstop service between its base in Alberta and Hawaii from mid-February to end-April next year.
Until now, WestJet has operated a fleet of Boeing Next-Generation 737 aircraft, flying to destinations in Canada, the United States, the Caribbean and Mexico.
The single-type fleet has been a key plank in its low-cost strategy as flying only one type of plane reduces costs such as training and maintenance.
But the 737's range is limited and WestJet could be looking for avenues to expand.
"We view the news as an indication that WestJet may introduce larger aircraft into their fleet going down the road in an effort to compete on longer-haul routes," RBC Capital Markets airline analyst Walter Spracklin said.
"Other airlines are growing significantly in international routes due to the sizable demand. We know these are profitable routes," he said.
Air Canada (ACa.TO) (ACb.TO), WestJet's bigger rival, boosted operating income five-fold in its most recent quarter, partly because of strong demand on international routes.
WestJet said there was no truth to the talk that it would add variety to its fleet to fly further afield.
"This is not the beginning of a new fleet type or a fleet change, but rather, a clear demonstration that we have the creativity, flexibility and commitment to assert our competitive advantage in the market, particularly in Alberta," spokesman Robert Palmer said.
The winter and spring months are a popular time for Canadians to escape to warmer destinations such as Hawaii. WestJet last spring also operated a nonstop flight from Alberta to Hawaii using its own 737-700 aircraft, but it could not sell all the seats due to weight and fuel constraints.
WestJet is leasing the 757-200 from North American Airlines, a charter air service provider and a subsidiary of Global Aviation Holdings [GLALG.UL].
North American will provide pilots, flight attendants and maintenance engineers to operate and service the aircraft.
WestJet's stock was down 1 Canadian cent at C$13.70 on the Toronto Stock Exchange on Tuesday afternoon against the trend of a firmer market.