50% Rebate On Air Canada Award Tickets

by Gary Leff

air canada plane tarmac
Jun 17 2020

Air Canada Aeroplan is offerings a 50% rebate on redemptions of Canadian domestic flights and between the U.S. and Canada booked by July 1 for travel between July 1 and October 15, 2020.

Even though the ‘border closure’ has been extended, that actually doesn’t prevent Canadians from flying to the U.S. and of course restrictions on travel could be lifted come late July or beyond. You may think booking an award ticket to Canada now is speculative but that’s fine because Aeroplan rewards are cancellable free through August 31.

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Holy Cow: Half Of Employees Tested At Orlando Airport Are Positive For COVID-19

by Gary Leff

Jun 17 2020

Florida reported that 260 out of 500 employees at Orlando International Airport (MCO) tested positive for the novel coronavirus. They did widespread testing at the airport as a result of a handful of cases there, followed up by contact tracing. The 52% positivity rate is huge, but – without more information about the specific roles involved – makes sense for indoor air conditioned environment.

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9 Reasons Business Travel Won’t Be Back This Year

by Gary Leff

Jun 17 2020

We’ve had four days in the past week where the TSA reports more than half a million people clearing airport security checkpoints. That’s down from 2.3 to 2.7 million a year ago, but way up from 87,000 a day at bottom.

That’s mostly led by domestic leisure travel. Business travel, on the other hand, is a long way off – and likely won’t return to anything near normal this year. Here are 9 reasons why.

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70% Of Beijing Flights Cancelled As New Outbreak Grows

by Gary Leff

Jun 17 2020

Just yesterday I reported that 3 of the world’s 5 largest airlines right now are in China as the country gets life back to normal and its aviation sector returns to something more like normal ahead of the rest of the world.

Now, though, flights to and from Beijing are being cancelled en masse on Wednesday – 1,255 flights, or 70% of the total scheduled for the day – as the government tries to contain a new COVID-19 outbreak.

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Travel Is Going To Be Really Inexpensive, And Then More Expensive For Awhile

by Gary Leff

gary leff selfie
Jun 16 2020

There’s likely to be greater variance in what happens to fares than we’re used to, because airlines build their schedules guessing what demand patterns are going to look like and those may be more volatile than we’re used to – airline revenue management tools are more likely to “guess wrong” than in the past because they’re dealing with new situations they haven’t encountered before.

Hotels are a different story. While hotels can leave entire floors closed to save on cleaning and heating and air conditioning costs during periods of low demand, it’s harder to mothball capacity.

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Southwest Is Now The World’s Largest Airline (United Isn’t Even In The Top 10)

by Gary Leff

Jun 16 2020

Last year at this time the four largest airlines in the world based on capacity were all in the U.S. American Airlines was the world’s largest airline, Delta second, followed by Southwest and then United.

The aviation industry has been among the hardest hit by COVID-19. That’s shaken up which airlines offer the most travel capacity in the world. Southwest is now the largest, and three Chinese airlines in the top 5.

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How Does Banning Inflight Alcohol Protect Us From The Coronavirus?

by Gary Leff

Jun 16 2020

Airlines around the world “are suspending all or part of their alcoholic drinks service in response to Covid-19.” But how on earth is this a response to COVID-19?

Where airlines continue to offer drinks what’s the difference between offering tomato juice and offering that tomato juice with vodka? Does the virus spread less effectively through alcohol on longer flights where alcohol may still be offered, or in premium cabins?

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