star

Due to a surge in demand and staffing shortages, some major Canadian airports have recently been plagued with long lineups, delays and flight cancellations. On top of that, travellers are complaining about another major problem: missing baggage, which sometimes fails to arrive during their trip. "It's frustrating," said WestJet passenger Joni Hirtle of Calgary. She was reunited with her luggage on Saturday — a week after her nine-day trip to Costa Rica. Hirtle's suitcase disappeared after she boarded the second leg of her flight from Toronto. Its contents included $400 hiking boots and a wad of cash totalling about $400 hidden in a sock. During a stopover in Toronto on the way home, Hirtle inquired about her luggage at WestJet's baggage claim counter. "There were tons of bags sitting there," she said. "They don't have enough resources to be addressing these issues." When Air Canada passenger Harrison Burton landed in Montreal on Friday, en route to Moncton, he was so overwhelmed by the piles of unclaimed luggage, he posted a video on Facebook. "It's chaos," he says in the video. "It's insane. They need to fix this." The federal government has hired more border officers and security staff at airports to help ease the bottlenecks at airports, though Transport Minister Omar Alghabra has pointed some blame at the airlines, saying last week they must also "do their part." Air Canada says most passengers arrive at their destination with their luggage, but acknowledges that the number who don't has recently increased. The airline says many of the reasons behind baggage delays — such as airport backlogs — are outside its control. "When an aircraft is held at a gate because of a customs backlog inside the terminal, it may not be loaded on time for its next flight," said spokesperson Peter Fitzpatrick in an email. "Be assured that avoiding baggage delays is a top priority for us."<br/>

Deutsche Lufthansa management apologized for the disruptions and cancellations bedeviling the global aviation industry and cautioned the situation won’t improve in the near future as carriers and airports struggle to rebuild operations from the pandemic slump. In a letter sent overnight to customers, Europe’s biggest airline group laid out the causes of the chaos, from a lack of personnel to the war in Ukraine. The carrier said global aviation is reaching the limits of available resources, frustrating airline efforts to recover losses after the coronavirus burst a decades-long boom in travel. “We can only apologize to you for this,” Lufthansa said in the statement. “In the coming weeks, as passenger numbers continue to rise, be it for leisure or business travel, the situation is unlikely to improve in the short term.” Germany’s flagship airline has cancelled a total of 3,100 flights after a wave of coronavirus infections worsened staffing shortages, adding to Europe’s travel chaos as the crucial summer vacation period gets under way. Having let go of thousands of employees during the pandemic, airlines and ground operations at airports are struggling to meet resurging travel demand. Lufthansa said the industry’s racing to rehire thousands of employees, though the push will only have a stabilizing factor this coming winter. The war in Ukraine has restricted available airspace in Europe, prompting “massive bottlenecks in the skies” and additional delays, Lufthansa said. <br/>

Deutsche Lufthansa's Swiss business said Tuesday it would cut about 2% of its flights scheduled between August and October because of labour shortages, strikes and rising COVID-19 infections. Swiss International said in a statement that it was "helping to ease the present pressures on both its own flight schedules and the Swiss system as a whole. This will minimize the risk of short-notice cancellations or schedule modifications." Destinations would remain reachable from Switzerland but frequencies would be cut, it added. Airlines around the world, which slashed jobs during the coronavirus pandemic, are struggling to ramp up operations as demand returns. Lufthansa CE Carsten Spohr earlier apologised to employees and customers for travel chaos caused by labour shortages amid soaring demand during the summer. <br/>

Scandinavian airline SAS and its pilots have agreed, at the behest of mediators, to extend by three days a deadline for wage talks, thus postponing the risk of a strike, the carrier and labour unions said on Wednesday. "SAS welcomes the mediators' decision as it continues to be the company's firm ambition to reach an agreement and avoid a strike," the company said. Flights will continue as normal on Wednesday. Close to 1,000 pilots in Denmark, Sweden and Norway, around 80% of those working for the company, plan to go on strike unless a deal is found, labour unions have said.<br/>

Norway will support a plan by airline SAS to convert debt into equity under certain conditions but does not plan to remain a long-term stakeholder, Industry Minister Jan Christian Vestre said on Tuesday. SAS owes the state about 1.5b Norwegian crowns ($153m) from loans made during the COVID-19 pandemic, he said, adding that these can be converted into equity under certain conditions. Vestre did not elaborate on the conditions that must be met, saying this was market-sensitive information. The airline said it "appreciated" the support from the Norwegian government, describing it as an "important step" towards the plan's success. SAS this year set out a plan to cut costs, convert debt and attract fresh cash from equity investors and said that restructuring was needed to prevent the carrier from running out of money. Vestre reiterated that Norway, which sold out of SAS as a shareholder in 2018, will not take part as an investor in any SAS share issue, a position similar to that of the Swedish government.<br/>

Swedish loss-making airline SAS is fighting for survival, the latest carrier to hit financial straits due to hefty debts, stiff competition and soaring costs, even as the travel industry recovers from the pandemic. SAS has said a restructuring plan announced in February depends on it raising 9.5b Swedish crowns ($946m) in cash and converting 20b crowns of debt to equity. Many governments across the world helped shore up their national carriers during the pandemic. But Sweden and Denmark, which both have 21.8% stakes in SAS, are taking very different approaches to the Scandinavian brand. Denmark has said it is willing to increase its ownership and write off debt, but Sweden has refused to inject more money. SAS, formally known as Scandinavian Airlines System Denmark – Norway – Sweden, is headquartered in Stockholm, but it uses Copenhagen Airport, the largest in Scandinavia, as its main hub. Denmark's Finance Minister Nicolai Wammen has said SAS is important for the Danish economy and ensuring good travel connections from the Nordic country to the rest of Europe as well as long-distance flights to other continents. SAS directly employs almost 7,000 people, equally shared between Denmark, Sweden and Norway. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the company underpinned 20,000 jobs in the Scandinavian region, 6,800 of those in Denmark, according to a 2019 report by Copenhagen Economics commissioned by SAS. SAS accounted for almost a third of direct and indirect flights to Denmark, according to the report. It also accounted for 82% of transfer air traffic at Copenhagen airport in 2017. To Danes, SAS has traditionally been linked to a sense of pride and even a collective sense of ownership as it evolved to become a leading premium carrier in the decades following its creation in 1946. Story has more.<br/>

Turkish Airlines has received 2022 Sustainability Award in Most Sustainable Flag Carrier Airline category by World Finance, one of the foremost organizations in international finance world. Working with Zero Waste policy in sustainability, flag carrier received this award due to its fleet being one of the world’s youngest and most modern, commitment to gender equality, its projects for decreasing emissions and fuel usage in order to combat climate change, biofuel usage, its support for R&D projects with this scope, flexibility and strong financial performance during pandemic. Turkish Airlines Chairman of the Board and the Executive Committee, Prof Dr. Ahmet Bolat said; "As the airline that flies to more countries than any other airline, we see sustainability as one of our focus points of our growth strategy. Our operation centres designed with the needs of the future, our young and modern fleet and our colleagues who are experts in their fields, are the key in lessening our environmental impact in our growth journey. Recognition by World Finance with an award shows us that our steps taken in scope of our sustainable operations are in the right direction. As Turkish Airlines family, we will continue to focus on the future of our world.”<br/>

Korean Air Lines and Asiana Airlines, Korea's two biggest carriers, on Wednesday resumed the Gimpo-Haneda route after a two-year suspension due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Korea and Japan agreed to reopen the route last week. Korean Air and Asiana will operate two flights per week on the Haneda route, respectively, while All Nippon Airways and Japan Airlines will provide a total of four flights a week as well, according to the Land, Infrastructure and Transport Ministry. The four airlines operated a total 21 flights a week on the Haneda route in 2019 before the pandemic hit the airline industry. The number of flights will increase in phases starting next month, depending on travel demand and preparations by airliners, the ministry said. On top of the flights between Gimpo International Airport and Haneda International Airport, flights are available from Incheon International Airport to the Narita and Osaka airports.<br/>

Air New Zealand will soon allow economy passengers to lie down and take a nap in communal, bunk bed-style sleeping pods on its planes, as it attempts to entice passengers on to its more than 17-hour ultra-long-haul flights. In what the airline says will be a world first when its new cabins are installed by 2024, premium and regular economy passengers will still be sold traditional seats that do not recline into a bed. However, these passengers will be able to book four-hour sessions in lie-flat sleeping pods – which the airline has named “Skynest” – at an additional cost. Pods will have a mattress and sheets – which will be changed by cabin crew after each booking – and will be stacked on top of each other to take advantage of the height of the cabin. Each pod will have a privacy curtain, USB charging and “ventilation outlets”. Five economy seats will be removed to make space to install six of the Skynest pods across eight Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners that Air New Zealand will receive from the end of 2024. The sleeping pods will not be available for the launch of Air New Zealand’s direct flights between Auckland and New York this September – a route that is set to exceed 17 hours. The airline will also resume its Auckland to Chicago service in October. An Air New Zealand spokeswoman told the Guardian that while the booking cost for a four-hour session in one of the beds has not yet been determined, it will only be open to regular and premium economy passengers. Passengers will only be able to book one session in a pod per flight, as demand from the more than 200 seats across the economy cabin is expected to be strong.<br/>