When planning a special five-week, overseas family vacation to celebrate her birthday and other milestones, Kelly Gillease was willing to splurge a bit on travel expenses to kick off the June trip.
Airline prices for a direct flight to Paris from San Francisco, where she lives, were around $4,500 US for three one-way economy tickets. Then Gillease noticed a deal to pay an extra $500 US per person to travel in business class, which included lie-flat seats.
“The differential was not very large to get a much nicer experience,” said Gillease, who works in marketing. “We thought it’s worth it to kick off the trip and get lie-flat seats and pay not much more money than what we would have paid to fly economy direct from San Francisco.”
The family bought the tickets to help ensure they were well-rested upon landing in Paris, where they would be for only four hours before travelling on to Corsica, a Mediterranean island in France. Their itinerary also included stops in Denmark and Norway, before spending the final two weeks on an African safari.
The catch? They had to make a connection in Calgary and fly with WestJet.
When Gillease chose to hub her international voyage through Calgary, she became part of a trend that has seen an increase in American travellers, mostly from the west coast, who are flying with WestJet to overseas destinations.
A record number of Americans flew with WestJet to Europe this summer. (Jeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press)
Record figures
This summer, 86,000 passengers on international flights with WestJet began or ended their journey in the U.S., which is a record high for the airline.
The number of Americans on WestJet’s transatlantic flights is up nearly 70 per cent compared to last summer, the airline said.
All of WestJet’s flights to Asia and Europe are based out of Calgary. The airline operates year-round or seasonal flights to Tokyo as well as European cities like Edinburgh, London, Rome, Barcelona, Dublin and Paris.
There are a variety of reasons for the rise in U.S. passengers flying through Calgary, including an increase this year in the number of international flights by WestJet.
Those extra seats come at a time of high demand, high prices and few available seats on many U.S. and European airlines on flights across the Atlantic Ocean, which has created an “extremely strong” air travel market, said John Grant, the chief data analyst at OAG, an aviation analytics firm.
“The continued post-pandemic ‘revenge-spend’ phenomena is in existence,” said Grant, who is based in the United Kingdom. “The strength of the U.S. dollar has encouraged more U.S. visitors to Europe.”
Grant added that people will often opt for a indirect flight because they think they can get a cheaper fare. “And sometimes they can.”
WestJet has increased the number of overseas flights over the last decade. (Tiphanie Roquette/CBC)
Soaring costs
The number of seats on flights between the U.S. and Europe is only three per cent lower this summer compared to 2019, said Hayley Berg, the Boston-based lead economist for Hopper, an airfare finder app.
But fares for those flights are up sharply as airlines cash in on consumer cravings for trips abroad. The average ticket price for a round-trip transatlantic flight in June was $1,054 US, a nearly 17 per cent increase compared to 2019, according to Berg.
“We have seen very high airfare throughout the summer. I would say from the perspective of June and July, it was the highest airfare that we’ve seen from the U.S. to Europe in the last five or six years at least,” she said.
Following the pandemic disruptions to the industry, some American and European airlines no longer operate transatlantic flights or haven’t brought back as many routes. The industry also faces labour challenges, relatively high jet fuel prices and limitations at some airports.
WestJet has cut several region routes in Canada but added more international seats out of Calgary.
“WestJet has seen an increased demand for U.S.-based transatlantic travel that exceeds all years prior to 2023,” WestJet spokesperson Julia Kaiser said in an e-mailed statement.
“This increase, alongside significant demand of our Canadian-based guests, has resulted in WestJet adding transatlantic flights and destinations by welcoming Tokyo-Narita to our network and increasing service to Paris to a year-round cadence.”
Choosing Calgary
The number of U.S. travellers is “very important for WestJet, no doubt about it,” said Grant, the analyst with OAG.
Calgary is a good connection from many cities like San Francisco, Los Angeles and Portland, but it’s still a relatively small international hub airport, Grant said.
“It’s also about price and you’re dealing with people at the most price-sensitive point in the market. They don’t have brand loyalty to WestJet, they have brand loyalty to their personal income and expenditure. So it would be folly to place more and more capacity on the basis purely of the connecting markets,” he said.
For Gillease, who had flown with WestJet several years ago, the flights from San Francisco to Calgary to Paris were a “lovely” experience in terms of food, customer service and comfy seats, she said.
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Unfortunately, upon arriving in Paris, her husband’s luggage didn’t turn up. Missing was a large backpack with belongings they specifically packed for the safari, including hiking shoes.
At one point, the bag was marked as permanently missing and they didn’t think they would ever get it back, said Gillease. But after three weeks, it arrived in Europe — just in time for the family’s flight to Africa the following day.
The family is waiting to be reimbursed for expenses connected with the lost bag. Still, Gillease would fly with WestJet again from the U.S., though she’d hesitate to check any luggage.
“I would fly them again if I just had carry-ons because the flight experience was so nice,” she said.
TORONTO – Canada Goose Holdings Inc. says it has signed a deal that will result in the creation of its first eyewear collection.
The deal announced on Thursday by the Toronto-based luxury apparel company comes in the form of an exclusive, long-term global licensing agreement with Marchon Eyewear Inc.
The terms and value of the agreement were not disclosed, but Marchon produces eyewear for brands including Lacoste, Nike, Calvin Klein, Ferragamo, Longchamp and Zeiss.
Marchon plans to roll out both sunglasses and optical wear under the Canada Goose name next spring, starting in North America.
Canada Goose says the eyewear will be sold through optical retailers, department stores, Canada Goose shops and its website.
Canada Goose CEO Dani Reiss told The Canadian Press in August that he envisioned his company eventually expanding into eyewear and luggage.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 19, 2024.
Almost seven years since news broke of an alleged conspiracy to fix the price of packaged bread across Canada, the saga isn’t over: the Competition Bureau continues to investigate the companies that may have been involved, and two class-action lawsuits continue to work their way through the courts.
Here’s a timeline of key events in the bread price-fixing case.
Oct. 31, 2017: The Competition Bureau says it’s investigating allegations of bread price-fixing and that it was granted search warrants in the case. Several grocers confirm they are co-operating in the probe.
Dec. 19, 2017: Loblaw and George Weston say they participated in an “industry-wide price-fixing arrangement” to raise the price of packaged bread. The companies say they have been co-operating in the Competition Bureau’s investigation since March 2015, when they self-reported to the bureau upon discovering anti-competitive behaviour, and are receiving immunity from prosecution. They announce they are offering $25 gift cards to customers amid the ongoing investigation into alleged bread price-fixing.
Jan. 31, 2018: In court documents, the Competition Bureau says at least $1.50 was added to the price of a loaf of bread between about 2001 and 2016.
Dec. 20, 2019: A class-action lawsuit in a Quebec court against multiple grocers and food companies is certified against a number of companies allegedly involved in bread price-fixing, including Loblaw, George Weston, Metro, Sobeys, Walmart Canada, Canada Bread and Giant Tiger (which have all denied involvement, except for Loblaw and George Weston, which later settled with the plaintiffs).
Dec. 31, 2021: A class-action lawsuit in an Ontario court covering all Canadian residents except those in Quebec who bought packaged bread from a company named in the suit is certified against roughly the same group of companies.
June 21, 2023: Bakery giant Canada Bread Co. is fined $50 million after pleading guilty to four counts of price-fixing under the Competition Act as part of the Competition Bureau’s ongoing investigation.
Oct. 25 2023: Canada Bread files a statement of defence in the Ontario class action denying participating in the alleged conspiracy and saying any anti-competitive behaviour it participated in was at the direction and to the benefit of its then-majority owner Maple Leaf Foods, which is not a defendant in the case (neither is its current owner Grupo Bimbo). Maple Leaf calls Canada Bread’s accusations “baseless.”
Dec. 20, 2023: Metro files new documents in the Ontario class action accusing Loblaw and its parent company George Weston of conspiring to implicate it in the alleged scheme, denying involvement. Sobeys has made a similar claim. The two companies deny the allegations.
July 25, 2024: Loblaw and George Weston say they agreed to pay a combined $500 million to settle both the Ontario and Quebec class-action lawsuits. Loblaw’s share of the settlement includes a $96-million credit for the gift cards it gave out years earlier.
Sept. 12, 2024: Canada Bread files new documents in Ontario court as part of the class action, claiming Maple Leaf used it as a “shield” to avoid liability in the alleged scheme. Maple Leaf was a majority shareholder of Canada Bread until 2014, and the company claims it’s liable for any price-fixing activity. Maple Leaf refutes the claims.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 19, 2024.
Companies in this story: (TSX:L, TSX:MFI, TSX:MRU, TSX:EMP.A, TSX:WN)
TORONTO – TD Bank Group, which is mired in a money laundering scandal in the U.S., says chief executive Bharat Masrani will retire next year.
Masrani, who will retire officially on April 10, 2025, says the bank’s, “anti-money laundering challenges,” took place on his watch and he takes full responsibility.
The bank named Raymond Chun, TD’s group head, Canadian personal banking, as his successor.
As part of a transition plan, Chun will become chief operating officer on Nov. 1 before taking over the top job when Masrani steps down at the bank’s annual meeting next year.
TD also announced that Riaz Ahmed, group head, wholesale banking and president and CEO of TD Securities, will retire at the end of January 2025.
TD has taken billions in charges related to ongoing U.S. investigations into the failure of its anti-money laundering program.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 19, 2024.
