Travel News

Air Canada's stock (AC.TO) fell as much as nearly 9 per cent in early trading on Thursday, after the company said it would cut more than 15 per cent of its scheduled flights in July and August.

The Montreal-based airline said on Wednesday that it will reduce its schedule – already operating at a capacity below pre-pandemic levels – by an average of 154 flights per day in July and August. Most of the affected flights are to and from Toronto and Montreal, the airline said, on domestic and Canada-U.S. routes.

Shares of the Montreal-based airline closed the trading day at $16.04, a decline of 6 per cent.

While travel demand has resurged from COVID lows this summer, the airline's stock has yet to see a substantial recovery in its price. Shares of Air Canada are down nearly 30 per cent this year. It is currently trading at levels not seen since 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic hit and the airline dramatically reduced its capacity levels.

Air Canada's chief executive officer Michael Rousseau said in a letter to customers released Wednesday that the airline's operations have been "disrupted by the industry's complex and unavoidable challenges", including flight delays and airport congestion amid a resurgence in travel demand. He said the airline needed to cut its remaining summer schedule "to bring about the level of operational stability we need."

"This was not an easy decision, as it will result in additional flight cancellations that will have a negative impact on some customers," Rousseau said.

"But doing this in advance allows affected customers to take time to make other arrangements in an orderly manner, rather than have their travel disrupted shortly before or during their journey, with few alternatives available."

Consumer rights advocates are pushing for compensation from Air Canada for the cancellations. Under the Air Passenger Protection Regulations, compensation of between $400 and $1,000 is required for a cancellation or delay that is "within a carrier's control."

Air Canada is not the only airline that has reduced its schedule amid surging demand. WestJet chief executive Alexis von Hoensbroech says the Calgary-based airline is flying 32 per cent fewer flights in and out of Toronto's Pearson International Airport in July than it did in 2019. He says the company made a series of "proactive" schedule cuts – the bulk of which were in Toronto – between March and May in anticipation of snarls and delays at Canada's biggest airport. While airports in western Canada are facing fewer challenges, Hoensbroech says he expects the remainder of the summer to be very challenging.

While the airline industry grapples with challenges in the travel recovery, there are some analysts that see opportunity.

National Bank analyst Cameron Doerksen added Air Canada to its list of top ideas in the transportation sector on June 22, citing "recent share price weakness and the view that the air travel recovery still has room to run."

"Air Canada shares are currently trading at essentially the same level as in June 2020 when non-essential air travel demand was close to zero and the prospect for a travel rebound were grim," Doerksen wrote in a note to clients.

"The outlook today for Air Canada is orders of magnitude better than was the case in June 2020, which is why we believe the current share price is a compelling entry point."

With files from The Canadian Press

Alicja Siekierska is a senior reporter at Yahoo Finance Canada. Follow her on Twitter @alicjawithaj.

(Bloomberg) -- New York City health officials have ended its Covid-19 alert system that informed residents about periods of higher transmission of the virus. 

The change took place this week and visitors to the city’s website are now met with a message that reads: “We are evaluating the city’s COVID Alert system. Check back here for updates in the coming weeks.”

Before the color-coded alert categorization was dropped, the city was last at a ‘medium risk level’ on Tuesday with New Yorkers being encouraged to continue wearing a mask in public indoor settings. While the masking guidance remains the same, the website now warns of “currently high transmission levels of Covid-19 throughout the city” without saying what the alert level is.

Health commissioner Ashwin Vasan had explained the move in a Thursday press conference, saying it was part of an ongoing reevaluation of the risk alert system that takes into account where New York City is in terms of “perception and the reality of risk from Covid-19.”

“We’re also at a different phase of the pandemic that demands new analytical tools to match our assessments and communications about risk with reality, accounting for the multiple inequitable realities faced by New Yorkers and Americans of different stripes and different situations,” Vasan said.

City data shows a seven-day average of 3,441 positive cases on June 28, up from 3,009 a week before. Daily hospitalizations, however, have shown a steady decline with the seven-day average at 79 on June 28, down from 106 a week before. 

(Bloomberg) -- Traffic at Paris’s main airport is expected to return to normal on Sunday after some unions called a halt to a strike that began on Thursday, the French civil aviation authority said.

Airlines haven’t been asked to cancel flights for Sunday, the authority known as DGAC said in a statement, after it ordered them to cut 20% of them for a portion of Saturday because of effects of the labor action. The agency said the decision was based on information provided by airport operator Aéroports de Paris.

The union walkouts also snarled access to the hub on Friday, when staff including firefighters were on strike.

Two of the Charles de Gaulle airport’s four runways were shut for part of Saturday due to the strike. All of the runways are expected to operate as usual on Sunday, DGAC said. 

The strikes and cancellations turned Paris into the latest chokepoint for Europe’s snarled travel networks this spring and summer. Hubs in cities including London, Amsterdam and Frankfurt have scrapped thousands of flights amid labor shortages and disputes over pay.

Those actions could spread. SAS AB is continuing talks with unions to avoid a crippling labor dispute at the airline after the deadline for a pilot strike passed, Norwegian newspaper DN reported, citing representatives from both sides of the negotiations. Mediators are trying to help the parties reach a deal.

In other industrial action, Ryanair Holdings Plc workers in Spain were set to walk out for a second weekend, while staff at EasyJet Plc bases there began the first of a series of three-day strikes on Friday.

(Bloomberg) -- American Airlines Group Inc. said it doesn’t expect any operation impact from a temporary glitch that had allowed pilots to drop thousands of flight hours. 

A “technical glitch” in AA’s pilot scheduling system led to more than 37,000 of flying hours in July to be dropped into open time, according to a statement by Allied Pilots Association President Ed Sicher on the union’s website. Sicher urged the carrier to re-engage with the union on talks to fix the system. 

Millions of people are expected to travel through US airports over the July 4 weekend, one of the busiest travel periods of the year for a beleaguered transportation system experiencing thousands of cancellations and delays. As of 9:15 p.m. Saturday in New York, there were 645 flight cancellations in the US, including 100 by AA, according to FlightAware.com.

“As a result of this technical glitch, certain trip trading transactions were able to be processed when it shouldn’t have been permitted,” AA said in an emailed statement. “We already have restored the vast majority of the affected trips and do not anticipate any operational impact because of this issue.”

(Bloomberg) -- Top US airlines will allow nonbinary travelers to purchase tickets with an “X” gender marker by the end of 2024, industry group Airlines for America said on Friday. 

Airlines for America spokeswoman Katherine Estep confirmed the decision, which was detailed in a letter released by Democratic Senator Ron Wyden. The industry group’s members include American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, JetBlue Airways, Southwest Airlines and United Airlines.  

Wyden said United and American already have changed booking processes to allow the X gender marker.

The US State Department in April implemented a policy allowing Americans to select the X gender marker on their passports.  

Depending on where you live, a net worth totaling millions of dollars may still be considered merely “comfortable,” a new survey finds.

In the U.S. overall, it takes a net worth of $2.2 million to be considered “wealthy” by other Americans — up from $1.9 million last year, according to financial services company Charles Schwab’s annual Modern Wealth Survey.

However, if you want to be considered rich by residents of large metropolitan areas, it will require even more wealth. 

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In San Francisco, the threshold for what’s considered wealthy is a net worth of $5.1 million. That’s the highest total in the survey, which examined 12 of the biggest metropolitan areas in the country. 

To be considered “financially comfortable,” a San Francisco resident would need a net worth of at least $1.7 million, the survey finds.

Here’s a look at what it takes to be considered wealthy by city in 2022, as ranked by net worth thresholds:

1. San Francisco: $5.1 million
2. Southern California (includes Los Angeles and San Diego): $3.9 million
3. New York City: $3.4 million
4. Washington, D.C.: $3.3 million
5. Seattle: $3.2 million
6. Phoenix: $2.7 million
7. Boston: $2.7 million
8. Dallas: $2.6 million
9. Houston: $2.6 million
10. Atlanta: $2.5 million
11. Chicago: $2.5 million
12. Denver: $2.3 million

The online survey was conducted in early February, with a sample of 500 to 750 local residents for each metropolitan area, between the ages of 21 and 75.

Net worth is a measure of the value of the assets a person or corporation owns, minus the liabilities they owe.

KEY POINTS

• Spain-based cabin crew at Ryanair plan to strike for 12 days this month to demand better working conditions, the USO and SICTPLA unions said on Saturday.
• The strikes planned for later this month raise the prospect of travel chaos as the summer tourist season gets under way.
• The announcement came on the final day of the crews’ current strike, which began on Thursday and forced Ryanair to cancel 10 flights in Spain on Saturday.

A Ryanair aircraft, which was carrying Belarusian opposition blogger and activist Roman Protasevich and diverted to Belarus, where authorities detained him, lands at Vilnius Airport in Vilnius, Lithuania May 23, 2021. Andrius Sytas | Reuters

Spain-based cabin crew at Ryanair plan to strike for 12 days this month to demand better working conditions, the USO and SICTPLA unions said on Saturday, raising the prospect of travel chaos as the summer tourist season gets under way.

The announcement came on the final day of the crews’ current strike, which began on Thursday and forced Ryanair to cancel 10 flights in Spain on Saturday.

Cabin crew will strike on July 12-15, 18-21 and 25-28 across the 10 Spanish airports where Ryanair operates, the unions said in a statement.

“The unions and crew of Ryanair ... demand a change of attitude from the airline,” they said in a statement, calling for Ryanair to resume negotiations over issues including payment of the minimum wage.

The unions also urged the government “not to allow Ryanair to violate labour legislation and constitutional rights such as the right to strike”.

In a statement on Saturday, Ryanair said it expected “minimal (if any) disruption to its flight schedules in July as a result of minor and poorly supported Spanish labour strikes”.

It added that “Air Traffic Control (ATC) strikes and airport staff shortages across Europe (which are beyond Ryanair’s control) may however cause some minor disruption and passengers whose flights are disrupted... will be notified by email/SMS.”

Ryanair cabin crew unions in Belgium, Spain, Portugal, France and Italy had taken strike action in recent days but the low-cost airline said less than 2% of its flights scheduled over last weekend had been affected. 

Airline workers across Europe have been staging walkouts as the sector adapts to a resumption of travel after pandemic lockdowns were lifted. Staff shortages have been blamed for lengthy delays and queues.

Spain-based cabin crew at easyJet are striking for nine days this month for higher pay. The airline cancelled five flights from Spain on Saturday.

Workers at Paris’ Charles de Gaulle airport went on strike on Friday and into Saturday, forcing cancellation of about 10% of flights. 

In Portugal, also a top holiday destination, there are no ongoing strikes but 65 flights to and from Lisbon were expected to be cancelled on Saturday due to “a set of constraints at various European airports”, said airport management company ANA.

The Portuguese situation has predominantly affected services of airline TAP, which did not immediately reply to a request for comment. Long lines formed at TAP’s support desk in Lisbon as frustrated passengers tried to either re-book or get a refund.

*UK pledges IMF reserves for African post-COVID recovery*

The UK is the first of the world’s wealthy nations to assign its special
drawing rights to the African Development Bank to channel cash to the
continent’s poorest economies.

The IMF last year allocated $650bn of funds to member nations to help
tackle the coronavirus pandemic, but poorer countries received a
significantly smaller slice of the funds because the IMF split the SDRs
in part according to the size of a country’s economy.

That meant African nations received $33bn in total—the same as France
and Italy combined and less than half the amount for the US. African
leaders say the continent needs at least $100bn.

The plan builds on an initiative of the United Nations Economic
Commission for Africa for SDRs to be utilised to enhance the IMF´s
capacity to support countries in need, leveraging the multilateral
development banks and creating a new Liquidity and Sustainability
Facility (LSF) to lower the liquidity premium on sovereign bonds offered
by developing countries.

AfDB will use the pledged reserves to leverage 4 times as much in funds.
With the AfDB in talks with other countries including Canada and France,
there is hope for meaningful amounts being deployed, providing much
needed relief.

*Record low Naira to see further losses*

The Naira slumped to a fresh record low against the dollar this week on
the unofficial market, trading at 615 from 611 at last week’s close.

Nigerian bakers are threatening a two-week strike in July unless the
government intervenes to tackle the rising cost of flour and other
baking ingredients.

Meantime, large fuel subsidy payouts by Nigeria’s national oil company
have constrained its ability to make full contributions to the
government for a fifth straight month. This was exacerbated by higher
global fuel prices, forcing the federal tax agency to step in and fill
the gap. We expect to see further Naira depreciation in the near term as
FX scarcity in the unofficial market persists.

*Cedi to cross 8 per dollar amid cost-of-living protests*

The Cedi edged back from a record dollar low this week, trading at 7.97
from 7.98 at last week’s close. Demonstrators clashed with police in
Ghana’s capital Accra this week amid protests over the worsening
economic environment and surging inflation, which hit a record 27.6% in May.

Ghana’s debt currently stands at 78% of GDP. With more than half of that
debt in external borrowings, the rise in interest rates globally is set
to make the country’s sovereign debt harder to service. We expect this
to put further pressure on the Cedi, which we anticipate will cross the
8.00 threshold in the near future.

*Electricity outages to increase Rand pressure*

The Rand weakened against the dollar this week, trading at 16.08 from
15.80 at last week’s close. That weakness was fueled by concerns about
South Africa’s power supply, with Eskom announcing longer electricity
outages due to worker strikes.

The stage six loadshedding measures will see South Africans around the
country go without power for roughly 12 hours at a time on a rotational
basis, putting stress on the Rand and the country’s credit rating. Given
that backdrop and the broader risk-off mood persisting, we expect the
currency to remain under pressure in the near term.

*Egyptian Pound stable with rates on hold*

The Pound was steady against the dollar this week, trading at 18.78—in
line with last week’s close. Egypt’s central bank has kept interest
rates on hold despite surging inflation due to higher import
costs—notably wheat—caused by Russia’s war in Ukraine.

The central bank said there is little it can do about external price
shocks. We expect the Pound to remain stable at or around its current
level over the coming days.

By Miftaudeen Raji

The Pilgrims Officer (APO) of Bida Local Government Area of Niger State, Nma Ndagana has left intending pilgrims from the State stranded as several would not be performing this year’s Hajj in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, KSA due to the officer’s failure to remit millions of naira paid into his account.

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According to reports, about 150 intending pilgrims had paid into the APO’s personal bank account.

Ndagana had allegedly directed that the Hajj fee be paid into his personal bank account instead of the official designated account domiciled in the Jaiz Bank.

Confirming the development, the Secretary of the Niger State Pilgrims Welfare Board, Alhaji Umar Maku Lapai, told newsmen that a committee had already been instituted to investigate the matter.

However, Lapai did not give the number of affected intending pilgrims. But the Secretary explained that the committee had received batches of complaints, with more people still coming forward with similar complaints.

The Secretary of the Committee also said that the APO registered more than the allocation given to his local government, adding that Ndagana only remitted for the assigned number of people for Bida local government.

Lapai said, “There are two ways to do it. For us in the Niger State Pilgrims Welfare Board, we have paid money for the 2, 265 people but we are yet to receive complete visas. It is the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria that is responsible for giving us the visas.

“In the case of Bida, the number of pilgrims that he (APO) registered were above the slot he was asked to register. Those that he paid their money to us have been given visas. Those that paid their money to his account were the ones with problems.

“We have set up a committee to find out what actually happened. The committee is still investigating. The affected people are coming in batches. In the first place, we registered 28 complaints. Later more people came and they are still coming,” he said.

Meanwhile, if the allegations were found to be true, the Secretary said the officials involved would not be allowed to travel, adding that the board would not take responsibility for money paid into individual accounts.

Lapai, however, could not explain the whereabouts of Ndagana.

• Thousands of July American Airlines flights briefly didn't have pilots scheduled, the Allied Pilots Association said.

• A glitch in its trip-trade system had temporarily allowed pilots to drop assignments, the APA said.

• American says that it doesn't expect the glitch to impact its flights or any customer travel plans.

Thousands of American Airlines flights set for July briefly didn't have pilots scheduled after a glitch allowed them to drop assignments, its pilots' union said. The glitch has since been resolved and American says that it doesn't expect it to impact travel plans.

On Friday night, American's trip-trade system allowed pilots to opt out of some of their scheduled flights, Ed Sicher, the president of the Allied Pilots Association(APA), said in a statement on Saturday. He put this down to "AA's operational mismanagement."

The union told news outlets including CNBC and The Wall Street Journal that as a result of the glitch, up to 12,075 flights scheduled for July were missing a captain, first officer, or both. The union said that American had reinstated about 80% of the trips, per reports.

"Our pilot trip trading system experienced a technical issue. As a result of this technical glitch, certain trip trading transactions were able to be processed when it shouldn't have been permitted," the airline told Insider.

"We already have restored the vast majority of the affected trips and do not anticipate any operational impact because of this issue."

American didn't immediately respond to Insider's request for comment, made outside of regular working hours.

APA told pilots on Sunday that if the airline added the flights back to their schedules it would violate its contract, but said that it was working with American to find a both short- and long-term fixes, per The Journal.

Sicher added that American CEO Robert Isom had called him four times that day "to commit to mitigating the damage from this debacle," and said that they had discussed paying an "inconvenience premium" to pilots who took on those flights, per The Journal.

American has around 15,000 pilots.

The scheduling issues at American come amid a period of travel chaos. Flights have been canceled, delayed, and changed and passengers have in some cases been left standing in line for security for hours or arriving in their destinations without luggage because of a combination of labor shortages at both airports and airlines, staff strikes, technical problems, and bad weather.

According to flight-tracking site FlightAware, 50% of flights from Toronto, nearly half of all flights from Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport and Frankfurt International, and 42% of flights from Montreal-Trudeau and London Heathrow were delayed on Sunday.

In the US, 27% of flights from JFK Airport, 23% of flights from Dallas-Fort Worth International, and 22% from Hartsfield-Jackson International in Atlanta were delayed.