Thursday, September 30, 2010

Earn bonus Aeroplan Miles on select flights out of Calgary

Air Canada has released their 4th quarter systemwide flight bonus promo as follows:
Earn up to 30,000 Bonus Aeroplan Miles when you register and fly Air Canada on select routes within North America, to the Caribbean, Europe or Asia. For every eligible roundtrip or twoone-way flight segments, you’ll earn:
* Up to 3,000 Bonus Aeroplan Miles on select routes within Canada or between Canada and the U.S.
* Up to 5,000 Bonus Aeroplan Miles on select routes between Canada and Bermuda or the Caribbean
* Up to 10,000 Bonus Aeroplan Miles on select routes between Canada and Europe or Isreal
* Up to 15,000 Bonus Aeroplan Miles on select routes between Canada and Asia
plus Fly 3 eligible one-way flight segments in Latitude or Executive First between Canada and Europe or Asia, and you’ll receive an additional one-time 15,000 mile bonus!

The unfortunate thing is that Calgary is excluded on the 3,000 Bonus Aeroplan Miles for select North American routes offer (within Canada and Canada to the U.S.) So if you want to earn these set of bonus miles you'll have to connect to one of the routes that the bonus is offered on. Other then that all other Air Canada flights to Bermuda, Caribbean, Europe, Israel and Asia are game.

The promotion is open to all Aeroplan members who register for the offer and is valid for flights until December 15.

Click here for full details and registration

Thursday, September 23, 2010

YYC Passenger stats for June and July 2010

The Calgary Airport Authority recently released the passenger statisitics for June and July 2010 and they continue to show healthy growth numbers.

June 2010 saw growth in all sectors with domestic travel growing 4.4% over 2009 and nearly matching the 2008 record numbers. Transborder traffic also boded well with a 8.5% growth over 2009 and International traffic once again seeing double digit growth over 2009 with a 15.6% increase. Overall, 1,052,202 passengers used the airport in June.

June 2010
Domestic: 758,186
Transborder: 186,552
International: 107,464

Domestic and International numbers continued their growth July  2010 however Transborder saw a declinefor the first time since November 2009. Overall traffic was 5.1% to 1,209,982 with Domestic travel growing by 5.1.%, Transborder shrinking by 0.8% and International going up 16.6%. .

July 2010
Domestic: 867,075
Transborder: 215,268
International: 127,639

Source: YYC.com

Monday, September 20, 2010

Edelweiss to increase YYC service for Summer 2011

UPDATE: Per the comment below Edelweiss is not increasing service to YYC, only to YVR

Original post
According to this CBC article, Swiss charter airline Edelweiss will be increasing service between Calgary and Zurich to twice weekly from this past summer's once weekly service. Edelweiss' Chief Commercial officer commented that the flights to Calgary and Vancouver were a success and they are looking to expand to Whitehorse where German charter carrier Condor is reducing flights.

Thursday, September 9, 2010

Air Canada cuts Seattle and Portland for the winter season

It appears that Air Canada is pulling their direct non-stop flights to the Pacific Northwest. The flights to Seattle and Portland will stop on Oct 30 and are schedule to be resumed on May 1, 2011

Other winter changes include Air Canada Las Vegas flights being upgraded to an A320 and Winnipeg flights losing mainline and going all to AC Jazz.

Original Source: Skyscraper pages
Additional Source: Airline Route Updates

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

2010 Airline Mega Awards Judging Academy

I am proud to announce that I will be one of the five members of the Judging academy for the 2010 Mega Awards to be held in Montreal on Oct 13, 2010 which is part of the larger Mega Event 2010 (FFP | ARAC | Co-Brand): The Airline Profitability Summit which runs Oct 12-14.

What are the Mega Awards? Well it is easier to post what Airline Information has described it as rather then having me rehash it:

"Airline Information proudly presents The 2010 Mega Awards Gala Dinner, sponsored by Visa and hosted by Freddie Laker
(son of legendary low cost airline innovator Sir Freddie Laker).

Winners of the Mega Award will be recognized during a ceremony held at Mega Event in Montreal on 13 October. An elegant gala evening featuring cocktails, dinner and a special appearance by modern low cost innovator Tony Fernandes, will mark Airline Information’s return to industry accolades since the FFP Innovation Awards.

This is truly an event that you don’t want to miss!

What are the Mega Awards?
Mega Awards can be won by Airlines, Vendors, and Professionals in three categories.

Categories include: Loyalty Marketing, Customer Engagement through Social Media, Merchandising/Ancillary Revenue. For the 2010 awards, both Vendors and Professionals are limited to the Loyalty Marketing and Merchandising categories.

What does it take to win?
The honor of winning a Mega Award requires daring innovation and results-oriented marketing. Campaigns launched or executed in the calendar year 2009 will be up for consideration by the Mega Awards Judging Academy. "

I am excited to be selected to be part of the judging panel and look forward to evaluating all the entries that are received.

If you are attending the summit or the gala or both, feel free to contact me so that we can have chance to meet face to face in Montreal.

For more information on the Mega Awards please see here: Mega Awards Gala Dinner 2010

For more information on the Mega Event Summit please see here: Mega Event 2010