Airlines and Airfares | travelmoments.ca

Air Canada direct Toronto to Copenhagen from June 24 onwards!

Posted on December 30, 2009 by Eva-Maria

Air Canada heading to Scandinavia again!

Air Canada announced it will launch daily service between Toronto and Copenhagen next summer.

Besides Copenhagen, AC has now announced long-haul service to three other new, major international destinations: Athens, Barcelona and Brussels (via Montreal). They consider the addition of Copenhagen next summer strategically important as passengers will be able to conveniently connect with their Star Alliance partner Scandinavian Airlines to reach such cities as Oslo, Helsinki, Warsaw, Stockholm and Gothenburg.

Air Canada will begin non-stop, daily flights between Toronto and Copenhagen on June 24, 2010, subject to government approval. The only non-stop service to Scandinavia from Canada will be operated with a 211-seat Boeing 767-300 ER aircraft. Service will operate daily in the summer, with reduced frequency in the winter.

————————————-
Flight Depart Toronto Arrive Copenhagen
Daily
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AC882 17:15 06:55 (+1)
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Flight Depart Copenhagen Arrive Toronto
Daily
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AC883 12:20 14:50
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For our Estonian travelers this means that there will be a new connection available from Toronto to Tallinn, using the SAS flights from Copenhagen onwards. This will put the current most popular flight choice to Tallinn, Finnair, on their toes. Finnair is best known for their unbeatable prices, which we cannot say for Air Canada transatlantic services. Will the convenience outweigh the price? We’ll be looking forward to see what happens during the coming summer season!

Finnair Toronto summer flights 5 times a week!

Posted on November 14, 2009 by Eva-Maria

NEW YORK (November 12, 2009) – Finnair, the national carrier of Finland, will operate five non-stop flights per week between Toronto and Helsinki starting June 6, 2010. Finnair will offer all-economy class flights on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Sundays, leaving Toronto at 10:50 p.m., arriving in Helsinki at 2 p.m. the next afternoon. Return flights will depart Helsinki at 5:45 p.m., arriving in Toronto at 7:35 p.m. on the same day. This schedule will be in effect from June 6 to September 9, 2010.

As Michael Maass, Finnair’s Sales Director for North America points out, “This particular schedule will be excellent for travelers who want to take the shortest route to Asia – via Helsinki. The Toronto flights will connect very well with our scheduled service to Bangkok, Beijing, Delhi, Hong Kong, Nagoya, Osaka, Seoul, Shanghai and Tokyo.”

This new schedule does not use the traditional connecting flights from Helsinki to destinations like Tallinn, Stockholm, Copenhagen etc., so we will see how the changed dynamics will work during the coming summer season.

The flights are already loaded into our reservation systems and can be booked for the summer travel.

Ticket prices start from (depending, of course, on the availability):

Shoulder Season ( departures 06JUN-25JUN & 10AUG-09SEP, 2010)
Helsinki 750 CAD plus taxes approx. 180 CAD
Tallinn 850 CAD plus taxes approx. 250 CAD

High Season ( departures 26JUN – 09AUG, 2010)
Helsinki 1050 CAD plus taxes approx. 180 CAD
Tallinn 1100 CAD plus taxes approx. 250 CAD

ESTONIA: Flight options from Canada update for 2009/2010

Posted on October 24, 2009 by Eva-Maria

Fall leaves in Estonia

Our declining economy is catching up with airlines as well. There used to be quite a few routes for getting to Estonia from Canada – but the options are getting thinner and thinner…Here are some updates for the 2009/2010 season!

FINNAIR: Canadians and Canadian Estonians travel to Tallinn usually during the summer – when you can get a convenient flight with Finnair from Toronto via Helsinki. The direct Toronto-Helsinki Finnair flights are already in the system and as far as we can see, they will run 3 times a week (Tue, Thu and Sun) from June 6th until September 9th in 2010, before and after that Finnair customers have to travel from Toronto to London or New York and from there on to Helsinki – and then to Tallinn. Finnair has “special rates” also from Montreal, Halifax, Vancouver and Calgary – but the direct Helsinki flights operate still only from Toronto. The connections to Tallinn that caused grief to so many of our passengers last summer – seem to be working better now, we can see some of the mid-morning Tallinn/Helsinki flights back in the schedule.

CZECH AIRLINES announced that they will cut their Toronto route as of October 2009 and are likely not to return during summer 2010.

LUFTHANSA has a direct flight to Frankfurt also from Ottawa and Montreal. Unfortunately their flights do not connect the same day via Frankfurt on the way back from Tallinn. But in case you don’t mind an overnight in Frankfurt – you could try that route and earn some Aeroplan points at the same time…
The good news is that depending on the schedule, there is a possibility to connect from Tallinn to Toronto with Lufthansa via Munich, during the winter it works once a week. It is a very nice connection, so hopefully the possibilities increase with the spring/summer schedule.

KLM ROYAL DUTCH AIRLINES used to have the best daily connections from Toronto and Montreal to Tallinn – but the airline decided to cancel their Amsterdam-Tallinn route as of 4 May, 2009. Depending on the flight schedules, there might be a chance to combine the KLM flight Toronto-Amsterdam with the Estonian Air flight Amsterdam-Tallinn, but that combination might not always work, depending on the seasonal schedules – and you are likely to be forced to re-check your baggage in Amsterdam, as the res system does not allow to issue this combination on one ticket.

LOT POLISH AIRLINES and AUSTRIAN AIRLINES used to connect to Tallinn twice a week – but they cancelled their Tallinn flights already in 2008.

You can use KLM, LUFTHANSA etc. flights to Helsinki and take a short flight or a boat-ride over to Tallinn – but that of course is extra hassle. But if you want to see the Finnish capital as well, then it might not be a bad combination.

There are other ways as well to get to Estonia from Canada. If you are adventurous enough, we can find you a charter flight to London, Frankfurt or Hamburg – and continue with Estonian Air to Tallinn. This way it is usually quite hard to make the connections fit with the lowest rates (unless you are very lucky!) but it would be suitable for example to someone intending to stop over in London.

Baltia Air Lines: Direct flights from US to the Baltics?

Posted on August 25, 2009 by Eva-Maria

Baltia Airlines logo - with the happy rooster!

The New York-based Baltia Air Lines announced that it has made agreements to acquire its first Boeing 747 airplane. The firm plans to become the US’s leading aviation company flying to Eastern Europe. The as-yet unspecified schedule will accordingly start flights between the largest US cities and Moscow, St. Petersburg, Riga, Vilnius, Tallinn, Minsk and Kiev.

Their business plan is not to go “no frills” like JetBlue or Southwest Airlines – but to offer quality service in First, Business and Economy classes while cutting flight times from the traditional 11-18 hours with connections to approx. 8 hours by flying direct.

On their web site you can see the following announcement: Baltia is a US startup airline. No ticket sales are currently available. This service is subject to receipt of government operating authority.

It will be very interesting to see if they can pull off the unprecedented and connect the Baltics to the great cities on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean!

For more detailed information, read the interesting research collected into the blog article Baltia Airlines, the 20 year old startup. Thanks, Tom, for doing all the great research!

Finnair: Unexpected deals for high season

Posted on May 17, 2009 by Eva-Maria

Recently we saw a very unexpected announcement from Finnair – they have lowered their high season prices to Helsinki and their other Scandinavian and European destinations. Depending on the date availability, you can find a high season seat to Helsinki for $1000 CAD + taxes and to Tallinn for $950 + taxes!

Prices for Tallinn are dropped quite dramatically – probably because of Finnair’s unpopular decision earlier this spring to cancel the mid-morning flights that used to provide a convenient connection for the people coming from Toronto and going to Tallinn and vv., stretching the wait times in Helsinki to 4-8 hours.

Contact us for the prices, as everything depends on the flight availability and flights that are sold out are of course excluded from the seatsale.

Conquest Vacations crashes: another operator gone from Canadian market

Posted on April 16, 2009 by Eva-Maria

After 37 years in business, Conquest Vacations announced today that is has ceased “its tour operations effective immediately.” The announcement, posted on Conquest’s web site, directs consumers who have paid with cash or cheque to contact their travel agent for assistance in getting a refund or making a claim. Those who booked with a credit card are told to contact their credit card company and those who booked direct are told to e-mail directcustomers@conquestvacations.com with a booking reference number. The tour operator says it “regrets the inconvenience caused to passengers due to cessation of its operations,” and blames “overcapacity and price war among the major tour operators, unrealistic and unreasonable demands by the credit card processing companies, credit squeeze and economic turmoil in recent months…”

Conquest Vacations was a Canadian tour operators that pioneered cheap travel options for Canadians since 1972. Conquest was an independent operator not linked to major corporations or airlines.

Cathay Pacific: The best airline of 2009

Posted on April 5, 2009 by Eva-Maria

Crew at Cathay Pacific Airlines

Cathay Pacific Airways picked up the 2009 Airline of the Year award at the first live SKYTRAX World Airline Awards ceremony held in Hamburg, Germany on 1st April 2009.The SKYTRAX World Airline Awards celebrated their tenth anniversary with around 500 people attending the 2009 Awards ceremony in Hamburg to see the winning airlines receive their accolades. Edward Plaisted (CEO of Skytrax) handed out awards in 34 categories – the winners being selected by the airline industry’s most important audience, it’s customers.

More than 16 million air travellers drawn from over 95 different nationalities took part in the 8 month long survey. The awards are recognised around the world for being the only true global independent passenger survey of airline standards. The survey does not receive any third party sponsorship and is entirely funded by Skytrax.

Edward Plaisted said: “the Cathay Pacific victory this year is the third occasion in the last ten years they have won this prestige title. A factor behind the Cathay Pacific win is clearly the consistency of product and service that they provide to their customers. Not only are Cathay Pacific satisfying their passengers onboard flights, but the ratings they achieved for their airport operations in Hong Kong also played a considerable part in this success”.

1. Cathay Pacific (placing in 2008 -> 2)
2. Singapore Airlines (1)
3. Asiana Airlines (5)
4. Qatar Airways (7)
5. Emirates (3)
6. Qantas (9)
7. Etihad Airways (8)
8. Air New Zealand (10)
9. Malaysia Airlines (6)
10. Thai Airways (4)

And here is the winners by the regions:
Asia: Cathay Pacific
Africa: South African Airways
Australasia: Qantas Airways
Europe: Swiss Int’l Air Lines
Middle East: Qatar Airways
North America: Continental Airlines
South America: LAN Airlines

Source: Skytrax

Estonian Air will cover Amsterdam and Berlin

Posted on April 3, 2009 by Eva-Maria

In the beginning of June Estonian Air will expand its network by launching 2 routes: Tallinn-Amsterdam and Tallinn-Berlin.

Starting from 7 June 2009, Estonian Air will operate between Tallinn and Amsterdam with three weekly flights on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays. It looks like the Amsterdam-Tallinn flights are going to connect with the KLM flights from/to Toronto. This will hopefully repair a “hole” in the market left by KLM pulling out of Tallinn from the beginning of May. Now we will just have to see how the pricing will work, as the flights are not yet in the GDS system.
Wednesday, Friday, Sunday OV173 Tallinn 6:45 Amsterdam 8:10
Wednesday, Friday, Sunday OV174 Amsterdam 9:40 Tallinn 13:00

Starting from 8 June 2009, Estonian Air will operate twice weekly flights between Tallinn and Berlin Tegel as well.
Monday, Friday OV157 Tallinn 13:35 Berlin 14:25
Monday, Friday OV158 Berlin 14:55 Tallinn 17:40

Ryanair “toilet scandal” turns into a clever promotional stunt!

Posted on March 26, 2009 by Eva-Maria

Ryanair boss O'Leary. Photo: M. Argles, guardian.co.uk

Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary has been widely criticised for introducing more and more charges, starting with food on board and extra fees for non-online customers, but now including check-in charges.Most recently he suggested that passengers could be asked to pay one pound coin (1.10 euros, 1.40 dollars) to go to the toilet on board, although spokesmen subsequently explained that he may not have been serious.

A budget airline boss was “only joking” when he suggested charging passengers to use the toilet, an airline spokesman told a German paper on March 12th.

Ryanair passengers were shocked last month when Michael O’Leary threatened to “put a coin-slot on the toilet doors so that people might have to actually spend a pound to spend a penny”. Ryanair spokesman for Germany, Anja Seugling, told the Ostthueringer Zeitung daily, “it was all just a gag,” adding that O’Leary was probably just thinking out loud.

O’Leary, who is one of Ireland’s wealthiest businessmen, has a reputation as a ruthless cost cutter, expanding Ryanair by offering low basic fares and charging extra for items like hold luggage.

Following criticism of the supposed plan, Ryanair launched a light-hearted competition on Thursday to suggest new ways the budget carrier can save money. The airline is offering 1000 euros to the most creative idea submitted by the end of March.

The Irish airline said it had already received suggestions including charging one euro for oxygen masks, 25 euros to use the emergency exits, 2.50 euros to read the safety card and 50 euros for bikini-clad cabin crew.

Other suggestions so far include charging for toilet paper with O’Leary’s face on it and charging 2.50 euros to read the safety cards.

“The suggestion I like best so far is a passenger in Sweden who has suggested that we should produce rolls of toilet paper with my picture on it,” says O’Leary.

Click HERE for more information and to submit your entry!!! But hurry, the contest closes March 31-st!

Source: AFP

Ryanair: Can you hold it until we land?

Posted on March 2, 2009 by Eva-Maria

Michael O’Leary, CEO of Ryanair, Europe’s biggest low-cost airline, said in an interview with the BBC on February 27 that the airline may start charging passengers for using the toilet during flights. “One thing we have looked at in the past and are looking at again is the possibility of maybe putting a coin slot on the toilet door so that people might actually have to spend a pound (EUR 1.12) to spend a penny in future,” he said, explaining: “We’re all about finding ways of raising discretionary revenue so we can keep lowering the cost of air travel.” Ryanair has already announced that it will soon close all check-in desks at airports so that passengers will have to check in online instead.

As you can see, Ryanair has reached another “low”… I am picturing a flight attendant sitting and selling toilet paper next to the washrooms… And you would probaly have to cough up another pound for that.

So what’s the next brilliant cost-cutting idea the airlines will come up ??? Anyone…???

See also article Air Canada: One Smile voucher, please!

Source: Baltic Standby