Apassenger rights advocacy group is going to court to try and block what it claims are deceptive reimbursement practices by one of Canada's biggest airlines. Air Passenger Rights is seeking an injunction against WestJet to block the alleged policy, ahead of a future trial. At issue is how much passengers can claim for reimbursement after being stranded. When delays or cancellations leave passengers waiting and in need of meals or accommodations, they can file a claim with WestJet, in the event vouchers weren't available or provided. Until recently, the company's website said domestic passengers could claim up to $150 a night and international passengers could claim up to $200 a night for hotels. It also said passengers could claim $45 a day for meals. But Air Passenger Rights says no such limits exist under either the Montreal Convention or Canada's Air Passenger Protection Regulations. "WestJet’s excuse to avoid reimbursing passengers really boils down to WestJet’s unwillingness to pay based on a self-imposed 'guideline,'" the group said in a notice of application filed in B.C. Supreme Court in October. "It is not much different than WestJet simply stating, “I will not reimburse you, as I do not want to,” with the Guidelines added as a false sense of legitimacy to deceive passengers."<br/>
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Egyptian budget carrier, Air Cairo, part owned by the state carrier Egypt Air, will start flights to Tripoli’s Mitiga and Benghazi’s Benina airports. from mid-December. Four flights per week are scheduled from Mitiga Airport to Cairo Airport and four flights per week are planned from Benina Airport to Alexandria Airport. The news was announced yesterday by the Commercial Department of the Libyan Ground Services Company who said ‘‘prices will be competitive and satisfactory to all’’.<br/>
The nation's top three low-cost carriers (LCC) — T’way Air, Jeju Air and Jin Air — are expected to benefit the most from the Chinese government’s decision to allow Korean tourists’ vise-free entry into Asia’s largest economy, according to analysts and industry officials, Tuesday. Unlike major carriers such as Korean Air and Asiana Airlines, LCCs rely heavily on short-haul routes to destinations such as Japan and other Southeast Asian countries for their revenue. The no-visa entry policy is considered one of the most critical factors pulling up demand for tourism, as evidenced by a surge in the number of tourists to Japan after the country took a similar measure in October 2022. According to data from the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency, Korea topped the list in the number of tourists who visited Japan in 2023. The figure came in at 6.95m, up 25.6%, compared with that in 2019. Meanwhile, data from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport showed that the number of passengers from Korea to China had yet to return to prepandemic levels. The figure reached 10.3m between January and September, accounting for merely 75% from the same period in 2019.<br/>
A captain’s misinterpretation of a dispatcher’s note and notice to airmen (NOTAM) oversights resulted in a Virgin Australia Boeing 737-800 taking off from section of closed runway. The serious incident occurred during the late morning of 22 November 2022 as the 737 (YH-YFH) departed Brisbane airport on runway 19L, says the Australian Transport Safety Bureau. Prior to the previous sector, from Melbourne, the crew had received a dispatcher’s note about a displaced threshold on Brisbane’s runway 01R, the opposite runway to 19L. “The captain misinterpreted the dispatcher’s note to mean that there were no performance requirements for operations on [runway 19L],” says the ATSB’s final report into the incident. “The captain reviewed the NOTAMs and based on this misunderstanding, dismissed the NOTAM as not being relevant for their operation.” The ATSB says it is unclear if the first officer reviewed the dispatcher’s note and NOTAM, but it believes that the “relevance of the note and this NOTAM was probably missed.” Contributing to their mental image, when the crew arrived from Melbourne on runway 19L they did not observe any works or other markers during their landing roll and exit from the runway. Moreover, signage at the take-off point suggested that the take-off distance was more than available.<br/>