New Brunswick's education minister is lashing out at Air Canada, saying the airline is incompetent because it decided on the weekend to cancel a Monday flight that would have taken him and four officials to a meeting in Regina.<br/>Dominic Cardy posted a series of tweets Saturday, saying the cancellation -- announced earlier that day -- means New Brunswick will not have representation at this year's meeting of the Council of Ministers of Education. Cardy followed up by calling for deregulation of Canada's airline industry. "I'm speaking for myself," he wrote. "I hope Canadians start asking why we pay more for flights than anyone in the world, in exchange for terrible service. Paying for unavailable services isn't left versus right. It's called being ripped off." His comments sparked an online debate, with some people asking the minister why his delegation had to attend in-person rather than taking part in a Zoom call, which would save taxpayers money. In response, Cardy said he doesn't run the council, and he doubled down by suggesting that "incompetent and coddled airlines" that take money for services they know they can't deliver could be committing fraud. Air Canada announced last week it would cut more than 15% of its schedule in July and August -- more than 9,500 flights -- due to an air transport system bogged down by surging demand. Also last week, Calgary-based WestJet Airlines confirmed it is flying 32% fewer flights in and out of Toronto Pearson International Airport in July than it did before the COVID-19 pandemic. In recent weeks, the airline industry's logistical problems have led to the long lineups, snarled connections and cancelled flights at many Canadian airports.<br/>
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Scandinavian airline SAS and its pilots have agreed to extend their wage talks until Monday in the hope of averting a strike, a company executive told reporters on Saturday. Close to 1,000 pilots in Denmark, Sweden and Norway plan to strike if talks break down, according to the unions, which SAS had said could leave some 30,000 passengers stranded each day. "We need to sleep, none of us have slept for a really long time," SAS' lead negotiator Marianne Hernaes told reporters after the latest round of talks which ran through the night. A strike would comes at a difficult time for loss-making SAS as it seeks to restructure its business by undertaking large cost cuts, raising new cash and converting debt to equity as part of a plan to rescue the carrier from collapse. Swedish daily Expressen had earlier reported, citing unnamed sources, that a deal had been reached, but SAS said the talks were still ongoing in the hope of averting a strike.<br/>
Deutsche Lufthansa will only offer seats in its most expensive booking class for the month of July, raising the price of even the cheapest return flights between London and Frankfurt to E1,000. Europe’s biggest airline is limiting availability after a wave of flight cancellations meant it was running out of open seats. The measure comes as thousands of travelers seek to rebook their tickets after Lufthansa canceled more than 3,000 flights due to staffing shortages and airport disruption. “Lufthansa does the utmost to offer an alternative travel option to all guests who are affected by a flight cancellation,” a spokesman said in an emailed statement. “To ensure this, Lufthansa has reduced availabilities for new bookings on Lufthansa operated flights in July.” German travel website Travel-Dealz.de first reported on the decision to increase prices. Lufthansa has said the industry’s racing to rehire thousands of employees, though the push will only have a stabilizing factor this coming winter. The airline’s supervisory board is set to hold an extraordinary meeting next week to discuss the ongoing disruption to its flight schedule, Handelsblatt reported.<br/>
Thai Airways International expects to complete its corporate restructuring in two years as the airline's performance gradually improves and global travel resumes, its restructuring committee chief said on Friday. Cabin factor, a measure of how well an airline does in filling seats, reached 70% by last month and was near 90% on European routes, Piyasvasti Amranand said. Thai Airways entered bankruptcy last year to restructure 400b baht ($11.25b) of debt and previously sought 50b baht of loans for liquidity. Thai state agencies will own about 40% of the airline after restructuring, down from current levels of 67%. The overhaul included re-hiring Piyasvasti, who was its president in a previous effort to steer the flag carrier out of financial trouble a decade ago. Thai Airways carried about 19m passengers before the pandemic and is targeting 9.18m next year, 11.8m in 2024 and 12.44m in 2025.<br/>