Travel News

By Princess Etuk

Green Africa has announced the temporary suspension of its flight operations due to an unexpected issue with its aircraft lessor.

Despite efforts to manage the situation and prevent disruptions, the airline confirmed that flights would remain grounded until after the Eid al-Fitr holidays.

In a statement on Monday, the airline expressed regret over the inconvenience and assured passengers that it was actively working to resolve the issue as soon as possible.

“We sincerely apologise to our valued customers who will be impacted by this disruption,” the airline said. “Please rest assured that we are actively working towards ensuring that we are able to resume operations in very short order.”

While Green Africa did not disclose specific details about the issue with its lessor, it reaffirmed its commitment to transparency and customer service.

The airline has advised affected passengers to stay updated through its official communication channels.

BY Jamie Brassington

The UK could shiver in a fresh Beast from the East in April, it is feared. Maps and data from WX Charts have revealed that the majority of the UK is set to plummet into frosty conditions from mid-April.

According to the data, snow could blanket cities including London, Newcastle and Birmingham on April 12. In Ireland, major cities including Dublin and Belfast could experience snow.

Most of Wales is also covered on the map, as well as Scotland. Giving its week-by-week verdict, which spans April 14 onwards, Netweather TV explained the "period may see the weather turn more unsettled at times with high pressure over northern Britain slackening and allowing low pressure systems and fronts to push in from the south-west at times."

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It states: "It does not look likely that we will move into a full-blown Atlantic westerly dominated regime, with slack areas of low pressure the more likely outcome, perhaps leading to a fair amount of showery weather at times with occasional longer outbreaks of rain, particularly in the south.

"High pressure is likely to often be close to the north which will probably again result in drier than average weather overall in most parts of Scotland. Relatively frequent easterly winds and lower pressure may result in low cloud being quite frequent near North Sea coasts of eastern Scotland and north-east England, but north-west Scotland is likely to remain mostly dry and sunny.

"Temperatures will probably be near to slightly above the long-term normal during this week, with rainfall totals below normal in most of Scotland, particularly the north-west, but a chance of above-average rainfall in south-western Britain.

Averaged over the UK, it will probably still be a little drier than normal. Sunshine is expected to be near normal for most of the UK, but below normal near north-eastern coasts and above normal in north-west Scotland."

Nick Finnis, meanwhile, said: "The outlook continues to remain dry for much of the country over the coming few weeks, perhaps for the first half of April, thanks to a persistent blocking high pressure system close to or over the British Isles. 00z GFS, below, shows most of the UK and the near continent dry as a bone for the 1st 10 days of April at least! More rain on the way for Iberia though this week - especially Portugal and western Spain."

Air Canada says demand for flights between Canadian and U.S. cities is weak for the spring and summer months, as Canadians respond to the trade war by avoiding trips south.

Bookings for transborder flights were down 10 per cent for the April-to-September period compared with the same period last year, as of mid-March, according to a presentation at the company’s annual meeting.

Air Canada is the largest Canadian airline and flies to more U.S. destinations than any other. “Am I concerned?,” Chairman Vagn Sørensen said in a response to a question from a shareholder during Monday’s meeting. “Yes, definitely, I’m concerned.”

Shares of Air Canada are down 35 per cent since the beginning of the year.

Air Canada and WestJet said in separate statements last week that geopolitical tensions are causing some consumers to choose not to take vacations in the U.S. The shift is part of a larger boycott of American products in response to U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs and his repeated statements that he believes Canada should be part of the U.S.

Sørensen added that the company is seeing strong demand for transatlantic flights to European destinations. The airline announced Monday that it’s adding flights this summer to cities including Edinburgh, Paris, Athens and Rome.

U.S.-Canada routes were 22 per cent of Air Canada’s passenger revenue in 2024.

Air Canada focuses on staying “agile,” Sørensen said, maintaining enough flexibility to redeploy capacity when demand shifts.

Porter Airlines, a competitor to Air Canada, said Monday it has altered its summer schedule so that domestic routes are 80 per cent of its total capacity, up from 75 per cent in its original plan. The airline said it’s making “targeted frequency reductions in select U.S. markets” but that its overall presence on Canada-U.S. routes will still be larger than last summer. Porter has been expanding capacity as it deploys new Embraer E195-E2 jets.

UK-based Virgin Atlantic Airways Ltd. also warned Monday that ticket sales on flights originating in the U.S. have weakened in recent weeks, while demand from Europe to the U.S. has held up well so far.

The S&P 500 Passenger Airlines Index dropped more than 6 per cent early Monday before paring those losses to a 1.4 per cent decline as of 1:30 p.m. New York time.

Public opinion polls show that a large majority of Canadians have no interest in joining the U.S. and they disapprove of Trump. A poll by Leger Marketing released last week found only nine per cent of Canadians would like to be part of the U.S.

Mathieu Dion, Bloomberg News

By Ainsley Thomson

New Zealand is seeing “red hot” interest in its revamped golden visa program from the US and Europe as rising geopolitical tensions prompt wealthy people to consider options abroad, Immigration Minister Erica Stanford said.

Applications for the Active Investor Plus visa open Tuesday in Wellington following an overhaul designed to make the program more appealing to affluent migrants. Changes include scrapping the English-language requirement, reducing the time investors must spend in the country, lowering minimum investment thresholds and simplifying investment categories.