Apparently the ultra-low cost of Flair is coming at a cost, with more than 20 per cent of its flights generating some sort of complaint to the Canadian Transport Agency (CTA), federal data shows.
While gripes about air travel are not unusual, the CTA, the quasi-judicial body that regulates air transportation, found Flair had the dubious distinction of trailing all other major carriers on customer satisfaction in the first quarter of 2023.
In the January-March period, the CTA received 20.9 complaints for every 100 Flair flights. That compares to 10.7 for WestJet and 5.8 for Air Canada.
Other low-cost carriers — which generally charge less for fares, only to add on ancillary fees for things like seat selection, baggage and live-agent customer service — performed better than Flair despite a similar business model.
Lynx, a fledgling Calgary-based carrier, had 5.2 complaints per 100 flights.
Sunwing, a leisure airline that was recently acquired by WestJet, was the second-worst carrier for complaints after Flair — it generated 17.4 complaints for every 100 flights, said the CTA. Swoop, WestJet’s discount sister brand, was the subject of 16 complaints per 100 flights.
Some complaints about Flair include last-minute flight cancellations, hours-long delays, lost bags and rebooked flights that are days or weeks away from the original date of departure.
Flair defended its record in an emailed statement.
Last month, a Flair spokesperson said the airline flew more than 436,000 passengers, with 82.1 per cent of its flights arriving within 15 minutes of the scheduled arrival time.
“We want every passenger to have a great experience with the airline, and the majority of our passengers do,” a spokesperson for the airline said.
“In the last several months, we have taken concrete steps to improve our responsiveness to customers in our communication channels, and the result is more responsive communications, and faster and successful resolution of customer inquiries.” Read more.
Do you have a gripe against an airline? Tell us all about it. Email marketplace@cbc.ca.
Here’s why we may never be rid of spam calls
Pradeep Selvaraj, of Whitby, Ont., says he still received a lot of spam calls. He recently posted an educational video about scam calls on YouTube. (Submitted by Pradeep Selvaraj)
Spam calls — or “scam calls” as they’re also known — have become an infuriating part of life. By now, most people are well acquainted with fraudsters trying to dupe you out of your cash by impersonating government officials or Amazon employees.
“I’m still getting a lot of spam calls,” said Pradeep Selvaraj, an IT professional in Whitby, Ont., who has posted about the issue on his YouTube channel.
Salvaraj estimates he receives two to three calls a week from scammers — often while at work. They claim they’re from the “CRA, RCMP, duct cleaning, Amazon, UPS shipping and the list goes on,” he said. “It’s very annoying.”
Many people had high hopes such calls would stop when, in late 2021, the CRTC, Canada’s telecom regulator, introduced new technology called STIR/SHAKEN. It lets telecoms detect calls that use spoofed or altered phone numbers to disguise their true identity.
But STIR/SHAKEN was never meant to be more than a partial solution and, some 18 months later, has yet to be entirely implemented. Those are some of the reasons scam calls aren’t going away anytime soon.
Another hurdle is that fraudsters are catching on. Experts say they can bypass the STIR/SHAKEN technology by purchasing real Canadian numbers, despite being located around the world.
Telus, Bell and Rogers all say they have programs in place to try and fight scam calls, but if your phone is ringing as much as ours are, you already know it’s not foolproof. Read more.
Marketplace has covered scam calls for more than five years, including travelling to India to identify scam centres calling Canadians, and intercepting scam calls and trying to stop people from losing money. You can watch those stories and more on CBC Gem.
The Bank of Canada has hiked the interest rate again — and there may be more to come
The Bank of Canada, shown here in Ottawa on July 12, 2022, hiked its benchmark interest rate to 4.75 per cent this week. (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press)
The Bank of Canada decided to raise its benchmark interest rate to 4.75 per cent on Wednesday.
It’s the first time the central bank has raised its trendsetting interest rate since January, when the bank signalled it would conditionally pause its aggressive campaign of rate hikes to wait and see if it had done enough to bring down inflation.
Since then, the data has shown the Canadian economy to be unexpectedly resilient, as it has grown more than expected. After declining for nine months in a row, the inflation rate unexpectedly ticked higher last month.
The bank’s latest move to increase its rate from 4.5 per cent to 4.75 per cent takes it to its highest level since 2001.
The big banks have also moved to match the rate hike, moving the prime rate to 6.95 per cent.
Brian Yu, an economist with Central 1 Credit Union, told CBC News this week that he was surprised the bank did what it did.
“I really don’t think that it’s necessary for further hikes at this point,” he said, noting that it typically takes at least 18 months for the full impact of rate hikes to be felt, which raises questions as to why the bank thought another was necessary after only standing pat for a short time.
“I think there could have been a little more patience in terms of whether or not to hike, but clearly given some of the more recent data that’s popped up, the bank felt that that was sufficient enough for them to move again,” he said.
“There is obviously a risk that they could hike again if these numbers aren’t starting to ease off, but my view is that they probably shouldn’t.” Read more.
TOKYO (AP) — Japanese technology group SoftBank swung back to profitability in the July-September quarter, boosted by positive results in its Vision Fund investments.
Tokyo-based SoftBank Group Corp. reported Tuesday a fiscal second quarter profit of nearly 1.18 trillion yen ($7.7 billion), compared with a 931 billion yen loss in the year-earlier period.
Quarterly sales edged up about 6% to nearly 1.77 trillion yen ($11.5 billion).
SoftBank credited income from royalties and licensing related to its holdings in Arm, a computer chip-designing company, whose business spans smartphones, data centers, networking equipment, automotive, consumer electronic devices, and AI applications.
The results were also helped by the absence of losses related to SoftBank’s investment in office-space sharing venture WeWork, which hit the previous fiscal year.
WeWork, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2023, emerged from Chapter 11 in June.
SoftBank has benefitted in recent months from rising share prices in some investment, such as U.S.-based e-commerce company Coupang, Chinese mobility provider DiDi Global and Bytedance, the Chinese developer of TikTok.
SoftBank’s financial results tend to swing wildly, partly because of its sprawling investment portfolio that includes search engine Yahoo, Chinese retailer Alibaba, and artificial intelligence company Nvidia.
SoftBank makes investments in a variety of companies that it groups together in a series of Vision Funds.
The company’s founder, Masayoshi Son, is a pioneer in technology investment in Japan. SoftBank Group does not give earnings forecasts.
Shopify Inc. executives brushed off concerns that incoming U.S. President Donald Trump will be a major detriment to many of the company’s merchants.
“There’s nothing in what we’ve heard from Trump, nor would there have been anything from (Democratic candidate) Kamala (Harris), which we think impacts the overall state of new business formation and entrepreneurship,” Shopify’s chief financial officer Jeff Hoffmeister told analysts on a call Tuesday.
“We still feel really good about all the merchants out there, all the entrepreneurs that want to start new businesses and that’s obviously not going to change with the administration.”
Hoffmeister’s comments come a week after Trump, a Republican businessman, trounced Harris in an election that will soon return him to the Oval Office.
On the campaign trail, he threatened to impose tariffs of 60 per cent on imports from China and roughly 10 per cent to 20 per cent on goods from all other countries.
If the president-elect makes good on the promise, many worry the cost of operating will soar for companies, including customers of Shopify, which sells e-commerce software to small businesses but also brands as big as Kylie Cosmetics and Victoria’s Secret.
These merchants may feel they have no choice but to pass on the increases to customers, perhaps sparking more inflation.
If Trump’s tariffs do come to fruition, Shopify’s president Harley Finkelstein pointed out China is “not a huge area” for Shopify.
However, “we can’t anticipate what every presidential administration is going to do,” he cautioned.
He likened the uncertainty facing the business community to the COVID-19 pandemic where Shopify had to help companies migrate online.
“Our job is no matter what comes the way of our merchants, we provide them with tools and service and support for them to navigate it really well,” he said.
Finkelstein was questioned about the forthcoming U.S. leadership change on a call meant to delve into Shopify’s latest earnings, which sent shares soaring 27 per cent to $158.63 shortly after Tuesday’s market open.
The Ottawa-based company, which keeps its books in U.S. dollars, reported US$828 million in net income for its third quarter, up from US$718 million in the same quarter last year, as its revenue rose 26 per cent.
Revenue for the period ended Sept. 30 totalled US$2.16 billion, up from US$1.71 billion a year earlier.
Subscription solutions revenue reached US$610 million, up from US$486 million in the same quarter last year.
Merchant solutions revenue amounted to US$1.55 billion, up from US$1.23 billion.
Shopify’s net income excluding the impact of equity investments totalled US$344 million for the quarter, up from US$173 million in the same quarter last year.
Daniel Chan, a TD Cowen analyst, said the results show Shopify has a leadership position in the e-commerce world and “a continued ability to gain market share.”
In its outlook for its fourth quarter of 2024, the company said it expects revenue to grow at a mid-to-high-twenties percentage rate on a year-over-year basis.
“Q4 guidance suggests Shopify will finish the year strong, with better-than-expected revenue growth and operating margin,” Chan pointed out in a note to investors.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 12, 2024.
TORONTO – RioCan Real Estate Investment Trust says it has cut almost 10 per cent of its staff as it deals with a slowdown in the condo market and overall pushes for greater efficiency.
The company says the cuts, which amount to around 60 employees based on its last annual filing, will mean about $9 million in restructuring charges and should translate to about $8 million in annualized cash savings.
The job cuts come as RioCan and others scale back condo development plans as the market softens, but chief executive Jonathan Gitlin says the reductions were from a companywide efficiency effort.
RioCan says it doesn’t plan to start any new construction of mixed-use properties this year and well into 2025 as it adjusts to the shifting market demand.
The company reported a net income of $96.9 million in the third quarter, up from a loss of $73.5 million last year, as it saw a $159 million boost from a favourable change in the fair value of investment properties.
RioCan reported what it says is a record-breaking 97.8 per cent occupancy rate in the quarter including retail committed occupancy of 98.6 per cent.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 12, 2024.
