Air Canada and United Airlines announced today that, through their enhanced transborder joint business agreement, they will offer industry leading capacity and new routes between Canada and the US for summer 2023 – including a new United-operated flight between Washington-Dulles and Calgary and a new Air Canada-operated flight between Washington-Dulles and Vancouver. The carriers have collaboratively optimized their schedules, subject to applicable government and regulatory conditions, and added more flights to provide customers greater connectivity and more flexible flight times, with over 80 transborder codeshare routes and more than 260 daily flights. "Through our longstanding partnership with United Airlines, Air Canada has been able to offer customers ever-increasing and significant benefits. This summer, customers will have even greater choice and convenience with our joint summer schedule made possible by our airlines' new enhanced transborder agreement. Together we will offer more than 260 daily departures to the U.S, and new non-stop flights from Vancouver and Calgary to Washington-Dulles," said Mark Galardo, Senior Vice President Network Planning and Revenue Management at Air Canada. "Our coordinated schedules will provide business travelers with the convenience of hourly service and the additional comfort of a business cabin on all flights between Toronto and New York and Chicago, as well as Vancouver and San Francisco."<br/>
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South Africa's plan to partially privatize its national airline South African Airways is in trouble because the country's competition regulator may not approve the deal, news website Semafor reported on Thursday. The South African government in 2021 signed a deal with the Takatso Consortium to sell a majority stake in the state-owned carrier to the consortium, which had promised to invest over 3b rand ($164.71m) to revive the airline. The involvement of Global Airways, which is part of the consortium and owns the regional airline Lift, could pose a market consolidation risk and is a point of concern for the authorities at South Africa's Competition Commission, Semafor said. The competition watchdog has begun investigating the possibility that the new company would stifle competition if the deal goes through, Semafor added, citing officials at the ministries of finance and public enterprises, and an official at the government chosen consortium.<br/>
Travellers planning to take a direct flight on SIA to Vancouver or Scoot to the Gold Coast from Singapore will soon have to look for other options. SIA will suspend direct flights between Singapore and Vancouver from October while its budget arm Scoot will end its services to Australia’s Gold Coast in July, the national carrier said in a third-quarter earnings report on Tuesday. “The group will continue to monitor the demand for air travel, and adjust its capacity accordingly,” it added. SIA returned to the Canadian market in December 2021 and added a non-stop service to Vancouver in June 2022. The flights run three times a week, according to Routes Online. Scoot is now the only airline that flies directly from Singapore to the Gold Coast – after it reinstated the route in February 2022 following a break during the Covid-19 pandemic. A check on Scoot’s website showed the flights currently run four times a week. From Feb 28, this will be reduced to three flights a week. In 2019, Scoot served nearly 130,000 travellers taking that route, according to Gold Coast news outlet myGC.A Scoot spokesman told The Straits Times that its last flight out of the Gold Coast will be on July 17. “Australia remains an important market to Scoot and we are committed to connecting travellers between Australia and other parts of the world,” the spokesman said, adding that the move came as it “adjusts capacity and optimise resources in response to demand”. Gold Coast mayor Tom Tate said he was surprised at the decision as he “was a party to putting that deal together”, reported myGC. “If there was something I could’ve done, I would’ve done it,” he added.<br/>
Thai Airways International’s operating loss narrowed 84% last year after Thailand eased pandemic-related border restrictions and tourists started to come back to the popular South-East Asia holiday destination. The carrier’s operating loss excluding one-time items came in at 4.6b baht (US$133m) in 2022, down from a 29.2b baht deficit in 2021, Thai Airways said in an exchange filing Friday. Thai Airways’ net loss for the period was 252m baht versus a 55b baht profit a year earlier, when the company booked a one-time gain of about 62b baht from a debt restructuring. Total operating revenue in 2022 jumped 342% to 105b baht. Thai Airways plans to exit from a court-supervised debt restructuring earlier than scheduled in late 2024 as a rebound in global air travel boosts its cash flow and reduces the need for new loans. The airline, which has posted net losses every year barring two since 2013, filed for bankruptcy protection in 2020 before most creditors agreed to extend terms and cut some payments as part of its $5.3b rehabilitation plan. The airline also said it plans to increase flight frequencies and add new routes, as well as expand its fleet, according to Friday’s statement. The carrier’s stock should also be able to resume trading in 2025, it added.<br/>
Thai Airways is currently testing a biometric check-in service at the Kingdom's main international gateway, Suvarnabhumi Airport (BKK) in Samut Prakan near Bangkok, Thailand. The national carrier was chosen by the Airports of Thailand (AOT) to pilot the biometric check-in solution at Suvarnabhumi Airport on flights to Singapore. The trial is being conducted on flight TG409, a daily service between Bangkok and Changi Airport in Singapore, until 30 April 2023. Biometric technology is becoming much more widely used in the overall air travel experience, from check-in to boarding, and even airport lounge access, and more. It is designed to create a smoother, more seamless travel experience, helping to reduce passenger waiting times at check-in and the boarding gate as the biometric data of passengers is connected through the Passenger Validation System. The biometric check-in for TG409 is taking place at counter D9 - D12, common use self-service kiosks 63-64 and at the common use bag drop counter E14 at Suvarnabhumi Airport. The airline and concerned stakeholders will evaluate the outcome of the trial project to decided on how best to proceed with its expansion at the airport and other international gateways in the country.<br/>