Edelweiss Returns to Calgary with New Non-stop Service

(Calgary, AB) - The Calgary Airport Authority is pleased to welcome Edelweiss Air, who will introduce new non-stop seasonal service from Calgary International Airport (YYC) to Zurich in 2016. The new service will operate twice-weekly from June to September with an Airbus 330 and will add nearly 600 seats a week into the Calgary market, which will bring in thousands of European visitors to Alberta, one of Canada’s most pristine tourism destinations. The new service comes as a result of close cooperation with YYC’s tourism partners such as the Government of Alberta, Travel Alberta, Tourism Calgary and Banff and Lake Louise Tourism, and aligns YYC’s strategic plan to grow passenger services, with our partners’ strategies to diversifying Alberta’s economy by growing tourism in the province.

“We’re thrilled to welcome Edelweiss Air back to Calgary with their new non-stop service to Zurich Airport, Switzerland’s largest hub,” said Stephan Poirier, Senior Vice-President and Chief Commercial Officer for The Calgary Airport Authority. “We are committed to growing tourism in Alberta and this new link will bring millions of tourism dollars to our province. Today’s announcement is a reflection of our commitment to growing YYC as an airline hub, strengthening our position as an economic leader and adding to the already impressive list of contributions YYC has made to the economy."

Edelweiss Air is a Swiss leisure carrier; its sister operator is Swiss International Air Lines (SWISS), the principal hub airline at Zurich Airport. Edelweiss formerly operated out of Calgary until 2012 and this is currently its second Canadian destination. In addition to being Switzerland’s leading leisure airline, Edelweiss offers customers a number of different offerings such as fully flat-bed business class seating, along with premium entertain options in its Economy Max and Economy Class. The announcement coincides with its 20 year anniversary as it celebrates with major expansion plans.

The twice-weekly summer schedule for Edelweiss will be as follows:

Thursdays
Arrival from Zurich to YYC at 3 p.m.
Departures from YYC to Zurich at 4:40 p.m. with an Airbus 330-200 (275 seats)

Sundays
Arrival from Zurich to YYC at 4 p.m.
Departures at 5:50 p.m. with an Airbus 330-300 (315 seats)



ABOUT THE CALGARY AIRPORT AUTHORITY

The Calgary Airport Authority is a not-for-profit organization incorporated under the Regional Airports Authorities Act of Alberta. The Calgary Airport Authority is responsible for the management, operation and development of Calgary International (YYC) and Springbank (YBW) Airports. YYC is an important economic engine for the city, region and province, generating over $8 billion per annum in economic activity.

For more information please contact:

Jody Moseley
Senior Director, Communications & Stakeholder Relations
The Calgary Airport Authority

KLM Pack&Go Fare Specials from Calgary

KLM Pack&GO super deals
Fares include all taxes and fees
Valid for bookings until September 18, 2012. Departure from October 16 to December 14, 2012 or from December 25, 2012 to May 6, 2013.

Calgary - Amsterdam from 999 $

Calgary - Dublin from 999 $

Calgary - Larnaca from 999 $

Calgary - Dubai from 1 199 $

Calgary - Johannesburg starting at 1 499 $

Book online at KLM.com

British Airways Fall Sale

British Airways is having a fall seat sale with fare as low $399 before taxes and fees to Amsterdam, London, Paris and Rome depending on your Canadian departure point.  These fares can found for travel between Oct 2012 and March 2013. For complete details or to book visit BritishAirways.com

Calgary Chinook Lounge to receive Priority Pass Highly Commended Award

Calgary, June 21, 2012 - Servisair was recognized today with a Priority Pass Highly Commended Award 2012 for its Chinook executive lounge located at Calgary International Airport (YYC) in Concourse D.

The Priority Pass Lounge of the Year Awards are designed to recognize service excellence amongst the lounges in the Priority Pass programme and are based on more than 40,000 ratings made by their members from around the world.

“We have a beautiful partnership with Servisair for lounges and VIP services around the world,” said Terry Evans, President, Priority Pass. “All Priority Pass members are frequent, discerning travellers with extensive experience of airport lounges so this is a fantastic reflection of the quality of service they feel they receive when they visit Servisair’s Chinook Lounge, Calgary.”

“We make it our priority to provide excellent customer service to passengers going through our executive lounges, and as such we are very proud of the recognition we received from our long standing partner, Priority Pass,” said Dale Flette, General Manager, Calgary, Servisair. “This award is the result of all the efforts made by our great and dedicated lounge team.”

“We are always thrilled when our partners receive accolades for providing a high level of service to the passengers at YYC, and we congratulate Servisair on this prestigious recognition,” said Don Kolsun, Director, Commercial & Retail Development for The Calgary Airport Authority. 

Celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, Priority Pass is the world’s largest independent airport lounge access program and counts millions of members worldwide. The programme provides frequent travellers with airport lounge access, irrespective of their class of travel, airline flown or existing membership of an airline loyalty programme. Founded in 1992 with 55 lounges in 49 countries, Priority Pass today offers access to more than 600 airport lounges in over 300 cities in more than 100 countries.  

Servisair is a market leader in the provision of common use airport lounges throughout the UK and Continental Europe and Canada, serving more than one million travelling passengers per year in more than 20 well equipped and stylish facilities. In Servisair executive lounges, business and leisure passengers can relax or work in a quiet place before their flight irrespective of their airline or class of travel. For more information, please visit www.executivelounges.ca

Great KLM Business Class Deals between Calgary & Europe for the Summer

Three SkyTeam airlines recently launched sales for Business Class tickets from Canada to Europe. Of course, KLM is the only one that serves Calgary, so this post is about their offers (if you want to see the other airlines see this post on Rewards Canada) My parents actually got on a previous KLM offer like one of these, Calgary-Prague for $2,500 all in. This time the prices are slightly higher but that is because we are also closer to the summer travel season. All of the prices below include all taxes and fees.

KLM Offers (all must be booked by June 5 for travel June 19 - Sept 10)
Edinburgh from $ 2 999
Oslo from $ 2 999
Geneva from $ 2 999
Birmingham from $ 2 999
Munich from $ 2 999
Billund from $ 2 999
Dubai from $ 3 499

To view/book these or other offers visit KLM

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Earn Double WestJet Dollars between Calgary & Chicago

To help promote their new route between Calgary & Chicago, WestJet will be offering their Rewards members Double WestJet dollars on the route.  I don't have all the details yet but know that you will have to register for it (WestJet will send out an email with the invitation link) and you must register by July 15 for travel between June 3 and September 3, 2012

Korean Air to codeshare on select WestJet routes out of YYC

Starting on May 31 Korean Air will be codesharing on a handful of WestJet flights that connect to Korean Air gateways in North America. These include Toronto, Vancouver, Los Angeles and San Francisco flights out of Calgary. The complete list is as follows:

Honolulu – Vancouver
Las Vegas – Calgary
Las Vegas – Vancouver
Los Angeles – Calgary
Los Angeles – Edmonton
Los Angeles – Vancouver
San Francisco – Calgary
San Francisco – Vancouver
Toronto – Calgary
Toronto – Halifax
Toronto – Montreal
Toronto – Ottawa
Toronto – Quebec City
Toronto – St. John’s NL
Toronto – Vancouver
Toronto – Winnipeg
Vancouver – Calgary
Vancouver – Edmonton
Vancouver – Kelowna
Vancouver – Montreal
Vancouver – Ottawa
Vancouver – Prince George
Vancouver – Regina
Vancouver – Saskatoon
Vancouver – Winnipeg

Source: Airline Route Updates

British Airways Business Class Sale: Calgary - London $1952 ALL IN!

To celebrate the Queen's Diamond Jubilee, British Airways is having a sale on Business Class flights to the U.K. from Canada. The price believe it or not is the same as the year that the Queen was inaugurated, 1952. Yes C$1952 including all fees and taxes for a round trip Business Class flight from any Canadian city that British Airways flies from (Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, Montreal) to London or Manchester.

The sale only runs until May 18 and is good for travel between May 26 and June 9, 2012

For complete details and/or to book please visit British Airways

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Earn Bonus Marriott Rewards points at the new Marriott YYC Airport Hotels

Earlier this year Marriott opened up two new hotels that are actually attached to each other at the Calgary International Airport. Located on the Southeast end near the intersection of McKnight and Barlow Trails, the Courtyard Calgary Airport and Residence Inn Calgary Airport are the newest options for travellers who are transiting via YYC or for those who have early flights and want to stay near the airport.

Both hotels are participating in a new bonus points offer from Marriott Rewards that offer 1,500 Bonus Points per night (max 7,500 bonus points per stay) at 4 participating Marriott hotels across Alberta until June 17.
The Participating Hotels are as follows:
Calgary Marriott Downtown Hotel
Courtyard Calgary Airport
Residence Inn Calgary Airport
Edmonton Marriott at River Cree Resort
For more details or to book online visit the offer page on Marriott.com

A quick check of rates at the Courtyard Calgary Airport has this bonus offer pricing out the same as their standard rate so this is a good points deal (sometimes these points offers price out higher than the lowest available rates or standard rates)

New Aeroplan Bonus Miles offers for flights out of YYC

Aeroplan has released their next batch of flight promos with a big focus on Calgary this time. The winter promos they ran (Boundless Bonus Miles) did not have too many YYC offers and perhaps Calgary flyers complained or Aeroplan realized they ignored us or Air Canada is feeling the heat from other airlines on these routes or most likely it is a combination of all of these.

The first promo is for International flights including the recently increase Tokyo Narita route:

Between April 30 and June 22, 2012, register and fly on scheduled flights operated by Air Canada between Calgary and Tokyo Narita or London Heathrow and earn:
2,000 Bonus Aeroplan Miles for every roundtrip or 2 one-way flight segments in Economy Class
5,000 Bonus Aeroplan Miles for every roundtrip or 2 one-way flight segments in Executive First
Register Online (Registration is required)

The second promo is for flights in Western Canada + Seattle & Portland and is part of Air Canada's 75th Anniversary:

Between April 30 and August 31, 2012, register* and fly to earn up to 7,500 Bonus Aeroplan Miles on eligible scheduled flights operated by Air Canada and Air Canada Express (operated by Jazz, Sky Regional and Air Georgian) to these select destinations within Canada and between Canada and the U.S.. The routes and bonuses are as follows:

Calgary		Edmonton Castlegar Kamloops Lethbridge Regina Saskatoon Winnipeg Medicine Hat Whitehorse Portland Seattle

2 flight segments 3 flight segments 4 flight segments 5 flight segments 6 flight segments 7 flight segments 8 flight segments 9 flight segments 10 flight segments 575 miles 575 miles 575 miles 575 miles 575 miles 575 miles 575 miles 575 miles 575 miles 775 miles 775 miles 775 miles 575 miles 1,150 miles 1,725 miles 3,075 miles 3,650 miles 5,000 miles 5,575 miles 6,150 miles 7,500 miles

Register Online (Registration is required)

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Passenger Statistics: Jan/Feb 2012

The start of 2012 is very promising for YYC in terms of passenger statistics. While 2011 saw a range of -1.1 to 3.2% passenger number changes over 2010, this year is seeing much larger increases so far. Now, it may be a little early to say this will be a banner year for YYC after only two months of statistics (with one of this months providing an extra day of traffic: February 29th) but I believe the numbers can be used as a good indicator of where the airport and this city is heading as both January and February broke the million passenger barriers for the first time.

January
Broken down domestic and transborder traffic were the sectors driving the larger numbers with increases of 7.0% and 6.7% respectively while International traffic saw a decrease of 3.5%.


January 2012
Domestic 696,032
Transborder 219,733
International 116,947

Febraury
The large growth in domestic and transborder traffic continued in February but also saw International traffic get back into the positive numbers. The largest percentage increase of 13.1% came from transborder traffic while domestic traffic increased 7.2% and International 2.9%

February 2012
Domestic 673,249
Transborder 233,326
International 111,280

Air Canada YYC-Tokyo Service now year round

At the end of February Air Canada announced that the non-stop Calgary to Tokyo service that has operated for the two Summer seasons will be moving to a year round service. As mentioned before the flight will operate 5 times weekly in the Summer and when it continues in the Winter season it will be reduced to 3 flights per week.

Source: Air Canada