Icelandair has announced an extension of summer seasonal flights from Portland, OR (PDX) and Raleigh-Durham (RDU) to Keflavik (Reykjavik) into January 2023.
As Iceland becomes an increasingly popular winter destination, travelers from Oregon and North Carolina will now have the opportunity to travel non-stop to the land of Fire and Ice during Northern Lights season with connections to the hottest destinations in Europe.
The extended PDX & RDU season will add four flights a week from November 1, 2022 โ January 7, 2023.
PDX to KEF flights (Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday)
RDU to KEF flights (Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday)
Azul, the largest airline in Brazil in terms of number of flights and cities served, was ranked by Cirium, a leading aviation data analysis company, as the most on-time airline in the world in July.ย According to “The Airline On-Time Performance Report”, Azul’s on-time performance was 89.02% in the global ranking for “The most on-time Global Airlines โ Mainline”, leading all the airlines analyzed in Asia/Pacific, North America, Europe, Africa, Middle East and Latin America.ย The analysis tracked 99.4% of Azul’s 25,003 flights during the month of July.
“Once again I am incredibly proud of my more than 13,000 colleagues for delivering an industry leading experience for our customers.ย This is the 2nd time in the previous 5 months that we have been number 1 in the world and we have been in the top 5 in every month since March.ย This achievement perfectly coincides with the historically high satisfaction scores we are seeing from our customers.”, says John Rodgerson, President of Azul. “The culture we have within the company, the spirit of working together as one team was key to this achievement”
Currently, Azul operates 900 daily flights to more than 150 destinations, on more than 240 routes with a flexible fleet of 160 aircraft ranging from Cessna Caravans to A330neo widebody aircraft for its international operations to the United States and Portugal.
Anyone can dream they can fly, but only a select few make it happen. Thatโs exactly what two American Airlines Cadet Academy graduates did. And, they made history along the way.
Blazing trails
As graduates of the Cadet Academy, Keith Taylor and Damion Washington continue American’s legacy of firsts by becoming the first graduates of a legacy carrier’s pilot training program to make it to the mainline flight deck as first officers. Both began their aviator journeys at the Cadet Academy, completing their flight training, building their hours, and flying for one of American’s wholly owned carriers โ Envoy. They now will join American’s flight deck as mainline first officers.
Keith said his love of flying began as a kid watching planes take off and land at Reagan National Airport in Washington, D.C. Flying by age 13, he continued to gain hours throughout college while pursuing a double major in Aviation and Political Science, and eventually a Masters in Business Administration, at Jacksonville University in Florida.
Keith said he thought he would train to fly in the military, but life took him on another path. Living in Los Angeles in 2018, Keith was working in the aviation industry but knew he should be in the sky and not on the ground. When one of Keithโs friends, who was also pursuing her dream of becoming a pilot, sent him information about the recently launched American Airlines Cadet Academy, he knew it was a sign to pursue his dream.
โIt was everything I needed,โ said Keith. โThe Cadet Academy offered financing, the connection to American Airlines โ which was who I had always wanted to fly for โ and pilot mentoring.โ
Keith was accepted as a member of the first ever Cadet Academy class and started the program in August 2018, graduated in February 2020 and started flying for Envoy the very next month.
โReceiving the job offer from American Airlines is truly something I will never forget,โ Keith said. โIt still doesnโt seem real. Iโm so excited to fly for American and I plan to continue mentoring and supporting future aviators. Itโs our job as cadets to leave the program better than we found it and I will continue to support the Cadet Academy for all itโs done for me.โ
Like Keith, Damionโs love for aviation started early. He grew up listening to the stories of his grandfather, who was the first Black private pilot in Arkansas. At that time, Damionโs grandfather wasnโt able to fly commercially, but Damion could see his future. The seed of one day flying as a commercial pilot was planted.
โAt that time, I didnโt know how to become a pilot,โ he said. โWe werenโt in those circles, so it just seemed out of reach for me.โ
He went on to pursue other dreams and became a pastor. โAs a pastor, I was telling people to pursue their dreams using all their gifts and talents and I realized that there was a big dream I had yet to pursue for myself,โ he said.
โTo those considering or those in the process of becoming a professional aviator, continue to pursue, continue to push through any barriers that may be holding you back, because today, I can tell you itโs so worth it to reach your dream.โโ First Officer Damion Washington
So he decided to change that. Damion applied to and was accepted into the Cadet Academy in the same 2018 class. He started with zero flight hours, but he had the determination and the support of his family to fulfill a lifelong dream.
โBecoming a pilot and joining American is a dream come true. Iโve always seen American as the biggest, the best, and the airline with the greatest history,โ Damion said. โItโs been a challenging road with a lot of hard work and sacrifice from my family to get here. To those considering or those in the process of becoming a professional aviator, continue to pursue and push through any barriers that may be holding you back because today, I can tell you, itโs so worth it to reach your dream.โ
Keith and Damion received their job offers from American at the recent Organization of Black Aerospace Professionals 46th annual conference. They were joined by another legend, Capt. Dave Harris, the first black pilot for a major passenger airline hired by American in 1964. Together, these three professional aviators are trailblazers and a testament to the power of perseverance and dedication.
Looking forward
Americanโs charge of turning aviatorsโ dreams into a reality is real, with its plan to hire 4,000 pilots by the end of 2023. American has a mission to bridge the gap between a future pilotโs dreams and reality by connecting them with flight schools and eliminating the financial barriers that prospective pilots face.
Through its Cadet Academy, American provides a structured platform that involves financing, training, and ongoing support while creating greater diversity among the current and future pilot ranks. With nearly 600 cadets in the program today โ and many graduates already working in the flight deck โ American continues to grow the program, significantly impacting the diverse makeup of flight crews industrywide.
Qantas is expanding its South Pacific presence with the addition of Tonga to its network, offering a new tropical destination for Australian travellers to explore.
Following the recent reopening of Tongaโs borders, Qantas will fly weekly between Sydney and Nukuโalofaโs Fuaโamotu Airport. The four and a half hour flights will be the only direct services between Australia and Tonga.
Qantas has been operating services since December 2020, supported by the Australian Governmentโs Pacific Flights Program. These flights have maintained critical passenger and freight links while international borders were closed. From today, passengers can book a flight directly on qantas.com with services operating every Thursday to Tonga.
The inclusion of Tonga to the international network follows the recent commitment of weekly services to Samoa as Qantas grows its presence in the South Pacific Islands off the back of strong holiday travel demand.
Qantas will initially operate one flight a week with a A330 aircraft between Tonga and Sydney alongside the Samoa service.
WestJet has announced new nonstop service between Winnipeg and Los Angeles, beginning October 31, 2022.
From left: Nick Hays, President and CEO, Winnipeg Airports Authority, Dayna Spiring, President and CEO, Winnipeg Economic Development; John Weatherill, WestJet Chief Commercial Officer, The Honourable Heather Stefanson, Premier of Manitoba; and Rod Bruinooge, Interim CEO, Manitoba Film and Music. (CNW Group/WESTJET, an Alberta Partnership)
The route, which will operate three-times weekly on a year-round basis, will strengthen integral ties and convenience in transportation between Winnipeg’s expanding television and film industry and the esteemed, world-renowned hub of entertainment itself, Los Angeles.
Route
Start Date
Frequency
Departure
Arrival
Winnipeg โ Los
Angeles
Beginning
October 31,
2022
3x Weekly (Monday,
Friday, Saturday)
7:00 am
8:50 am
Los Angeles –
Winnipeg
Beginning
October 31,
2022
3x Weekly (Monday,
Friday, Saturday)
9:35 am
3:07 pm
This winter, WestJet will solidify its position as the leading airline in Winnipeg providing more nonstop routes than any other carrier.
Further, the WestJet Group will increase capacity to and from Winnipeg by 80 percent in comparison to 2021, serving 22 nonstop, direct routes and producing the largest year-over-year growth of any major airport in the group’s network.
Top Copyright Photo: WestJet Airlines Boeing 737-8 MAX 8 C-GZSG (msn 60516) YYZ (TMK Photography). Image: 958572.
Air Canada today provided the following update on its operational improvement initiatives implemented in response to the challenges the global airline industry has encountered emerging from the pandemic.
“At Air Canada, we know how much our customers value travel and their reliance on us to transport them safely, comfortably and without disruption. This is always our goal and we share with them their disappointment that, coming out of the pandemic, the global industry faltered due to the unprecedented challenges of restarting after a two-year, virtual shutdown,” said Michael Rousseau, President and Chief Executive of Air Canada.
“Earlier this summer, I committed on behalf of everyone at Air Canada that we would do everything possible to restore our company’s industry leading standards of customer care. Among other things, this included innovation at the airport, operational changes and significant schedule adjustments and today these are yielding demonstrable improvement in the metrics that matter most to our customers. While I am very satisfied with the progress to date, and I thank our employees for their unrelenting efforts, we all continue to work hard on behalf of our customers to complete our recovery.”
For the period June 27 to August 14, during which it carried approximately 6.4 million customers, the Air Canada family (including Air Canada, Air Canada Rouge and Air Canada Express), recorded the following operational improvements as it returns to its pre-pandemic customer service levels:
Flight Delaysย โย Comparing the week of June 27 to the week of August 8, there was a 48% reduction or 1,160 fewer flights that took a delay longer than one hour.ย In addition, flight delays overall are getting shorter.ย For flights that experienced any delay, the average arrival delay during the week of June 27 was 28 minutes longer than the same week in 2019.ย As of the week of August 8, this had improved to 12 minutes.
Flight Cancellationsย –ย There has been a substantial reduction in the volume of flight cancellations.ย During the week of August 8, there was a 77% reduction in the number of cancelled flights as compared to the week of June 27.ย This translates into 960 fewer flights cancelled.ย Furthermore, flight completion, which is the percentage of all scheduled flights that are not canceled, reached 96.7% during the week of August 8, which was less than one percentage point lower than the same week in 2019. The vast majority of customers experiencing cancellations, often due to weather or other unexpected factors, were able to travel within 24 hours.
Baggage Handling – The strongest area of improvement over this period can be seen in baggage handling, where the airline handles over 650,000 bags per week.ย During the week of June 27, mishandling rates per 1,000 customers were approximately 2.5 times the same number in 2019.ย As of the week of August 8, this rate has fully recovered to 2019 levels with a baggage handling success rate of 98%.
Air Canada continues to work with its partners to address the issues disrupting the air transport ecosystem in Canada. Evidence of the success of these joint efforts is a marked decrease in delays and cancellations for airlines, contributing to increased overall stability in Air Canada’s operations. This has resulted in an enhanced customer experience, with better on-time performance, schedule reliability and baggage delivery.
Each day on average, Air Canada currently operates nearly 1,100 flights and regularly carries 135,000 people. Airย Canadaย has been prudently restoring its schedule as it recovers from the effects of COVID-19 and this summer it plans to operate 79 per cent of its pre-pandemic capacity as the industry stabilizes. In support of this, the carrier has recalled employees laid off during the pandemic and continues to hire additional workers. It currently has approximately 34,000 employees compared to 34,700 prior to the pandemic.
While the U.S. airline industry faced many challenges and cancellations this summer, Spirit Airlines issued this report on its performance this summer:
Spirit Airlines today announced its operational performance ranked among the industry best in the two-month period following when Spirit’s peak summer schedule went into effect on June 5. The carrier also set a company record for its highest-ever completion factor performance for the month of July.
“These great results are among the best in the industry and are due to the relentless dedication of our Spirit Family. Our team rose to the occasion to serve record numbers of summer travelers and work through industry challenges to deliver a high value experience for our Guests,” said John Bendoraitis, Spirit Airlines Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer.
Summary of Spirit’s operational performance from June 5 โ August 5:
Operated more than 44,000 domestic and international flights
Delivered a completion factor of 99.2% that ranked No. 3 in the U.S. industry; outperformed all major legacy airlines; included 25 days of 100 percent completion factor; and set a new company record for the month of July
77.5% of flights arrived within 14 minutes of scheduled arrival time, which is the standard “A14” industry metric, and ranked No. 4 in the U.S.
Launched new Albuquerque (ABQ) and Boise (BOI) stations during this period, and Reno (RNO) flights started August 10
Results are based on Spirit’s data compared to major and regional U.S. airlines. Official monthly performance results are published in the Department of Transportation’s Air Travel Consumer Reports. Spirit’s company record for July completion factor omitted July 2020, which was a reduced schedule due to the industry-wide drawdown during that period.
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