Lost baggage might soon be less of a hassle for Canadian travellers thanks to a new collaboration with Apple. In a news release(opens in a new tab) Monday, Apple announced that a new iOS 18.2 feature, 'Share Item Location,' will help users locate and recover misplaced items by sharing the location of an AirTag or 'Find My' network accessory with third parties including airlines. An Air Canada spokesperson confirmed in an email to CTVNews.ca Tuesday that the company is "collaborating with Apple to integrate their new Share Item Location feature into our baggage handling processes." "It will allow customers to securely share the location of their baggage containing AirTags directly with our baggage service team in the rare event their bags are delayed or misplaced," the airline said. In an email to CTVNews.ca Tuesday, WestJet said no changes have been made to its baggage policy regarding AirTags. However, if a traveller has an AirTag for a bag and is able to track its location, the airline encourages the traveller to provide that information to the baggage team. Porter Airlines said in an email to CTVNews.ca that it does not plan on immediately implement this feature. Apple's news release said, "In the coming months, more than 15 airlines serving millions of people globally will begin accepting Find My item locations as part of their customer service process for locating mishandled or delayed bags."<br/>
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CE of Latin American airline holding group Abra Adrian Neuhauser sees more customer-facing co-operation rolling out between partner carriers Avianca and Gol next year. Abra is majority stakeholder in both Colombian carrier Avianca and Brazilian airline Gol, and recently completed the acquisition of Spanish carrier Wamos Air. Gol has been working through a Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection process since the start of the year but, bolstered by a recent debt-for-equity agreement with Abra, is hoping to complete its financial restructuring by April next year. This restructuring has complicated stepping up co-operation between the two carriers. “One of the challenges that we’ve been dealing with through the bankruptcy is Abra’s position as both a creditor but also a significant equity holder in Gol, and just making sure that there’s no perception by any of the other stakeholders that we’re unduly influencing the company,” said Neuhauser, speaking during Avianca’s third-quarter earnings call on 8 November. “What we’ve been able to do so far with Gol is be supportive on a lot of things that you’re not seeing behind the scenes, but that have been helpful to us in terms of, for example, joint purchasing of certain things during negotiations with certain suppliers and OEMs.”<br/>
Japan’s two largest carriers are seeing slower-than-expected recovery on their Mainland China network, echoing a sentiment made a year ago in the aftermath of the easing of Covid-19 restrictions. Senior executives from Japan Airlines and All Nippon Airways also flagged an imbalance in demand on their China network, with Japan outbound far weaker due to visa-related restrictions for Japanese visitors to China. Conversely, the two airlines, who spoke to FlightGlobal at the Association of Asia Pacific Airlines’ assembly of presidents in Brunei, are seeing a gradual uptick in Chinese visitors to Japan. This recovery, though, remains tepid. Katsuya Goto, ANA’s executive vice president for alliances and international affairs, says: “For China, we are facing difficulties…because for Japanese travellers, a visa is required. So it is a hurdle for all Japanese travellers.” The visa requirement did not exist pre-pandemic, and only Chinese travellers into Japan had to apply for a visa to enter the country. Goto notes that business travel from Japan to China has picked up, but “barriers still remain”. As for Chinese inbound travel demand, Goto says it is recovering faster relative to outbound from Japan, but still falls below pre-pandemic levels. <br/>
Travelers booking seats on what’s currently the world’s longest nonstop commercial flight will have more luxurious options to choose from in the not-so-distant future. Singapore Airlines (SIA) — voted the world’s second-best airline in 2024 by Skytrax —recently revealed a multi-year 1.1b Singapore dollars (around $821m) program to install new long-haul cabin products in its 41 Airbus A350-900 aircraft. And as part of that retrofit, the airline is adding first-class seats to its seven A350-900ULR planes, which currently only have business class and premium economy cabins. Details of the cabin retrofits are few, with the airline only releasing a couple of images. What we do know is each of the seven A350-900ULR planes will feature four first-class seats, 70 business-class seats and 58 premium economy seats. ULR stands for Ultra Long Range, and the name says it all. The Singapore carrier uses these seven planes for flights to and from the United States. That includes the world’s longest nonstop commercial flight, between Singapore Changi Airport and New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport, which takes between 18 to 19 hours on average and covers more than 9,500 miles. “Designed with increasingly discerning travelers in mind, these plush first-class seats promise to deliver an unparalleled in-flight experience,” said the airline in a statement. Meanwhile, the airline’s 34 A350-900 long-haul aircraft will have 42 business-class seats, 24 premium economy seats and 192 economy seats. The first retrofitted A350-900 long-haul aircraft is expected to enter service in the second quarter of 2026, while the first A350-900ULR variant will follow in the first quarter of 2027. The airline says the new seat designs will also feature in its upcoming Boeing 777-9 aircraft.<br/>