Neha Jain: http://canadaaviationnews.blogspot.com/27

QATAR_AIRWAYS_ANNOUNCES_MOVE_INTO_CANADA

Porter Airlines calls itself Canada's third-largest scheduled carrier. President and CEO Robert Deluce leads the company, which is based in Toronto.

1. Canada: Qatar Airways Launches Three Non-Stop Services to Montreal Weekly
Qatar (Doha) – Qatar Airways, the national airline of the State of Qatar is set to make its debut in Canada with the launch of scheduled flights to Montreal, effective June 29, Global Arab Network reports according to a press statement.

Canada’s second largest city will be served with three-flights-a-week on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays using the airline’s flagship Boeing 777-200 Long Range aircraft. The non-stop journey from the airline’s hub in Doha to Montreal’s Pierre Elliot Trudeau International Airport will be a total flying time of 13 hrs 20 minutes.

The destination marks Qatar Airways’ first foray into Canada following a series of bilateral negotiations in Doha last year, when the airline secured rights to fly passenger and cargo flights to the country.

The province of Quebec’s capital city becomes the airline’s fourth destination in North America. The award-winning airline, ranked Five Star for service, excellence and high standards, currently operates daily flights to New York, Washington and Houston.

The highly anticipated Doha – Montreal route will facilitate trade and leisure business, providing seamless connectivity for travellers from east to west. With Qatar Airways’ extensive network of destination across the Middle East, Africa, South Asia and Far East, the airline will offer excellent connections over Doha to and from Montreal.

Qatar Airways is the first Gulf carrier to operate flights to Montreal, a city renowned for its festivals and arts scene, being home to the well established international dance troupe Cirque du Soleil, the IMAX cinemas, aircraft manufacturing company Bombardier and top-ranked universities world-wide, McGill and Concordia.

Qatar Airways Chief Executive Officer Akbar Al Baker said: “Yet again, we are announcing another new chapter in our remarkable short history with a move into Canada and a strengthening of our North American operations.

“It truly is a milestone to bring Canada and, in particular, Montreal, into the Qatar Airways’ family of international routes. The introduction of our Montreal service will provide a strong transportation link between Canada and Qatar and further facilitate the already strong economic ties between our countries.

“According to the government agency Export Development Canada, there are more than 1,500 Canadian companies doing business in the Gulf and Qatar, in particular, is one of Canada’s largest trading partners in the Middle East.

“With the oil and gas industry being a key connection that naturally aligns us, we hope that as soon as our thrice-weekly service is well-established and boosts the Qatari and Canadian economy to receive additional traffic rights for a daily operation to Montreal.

“Montreal is one of the most sought after destinations in the world and we hope to have paved the way for expanded capacity into Canada and operate to additional cities in the future. There is natural demand for travel from many parts of our international network to Canada, and thanks to our scheduling we are able to offer convenient connections over Doha,” he added.

These include Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Bahrain, Kuwait, Beirut, Tehran, Bangkok, Singapore, Tokyo, Ho Chi Minh City, Delhi, Mumbai and Karachi.

During a visit to Qatar last year, the Canadian Minister of International Trade, Peter Van Loan, revealed that the first Canadian Embassy in Qatar was expected to open in the capital Doha during Summer 2011. Van Loan said there were immense business opportunities tapping into Qatar’s burgeoning economy. These include legal firms, engineering consultancies and construction companies.

Qatar is home to more than 3,000 Canadian citizens and two Canadian university satellite campuses, The College of the North Atlantic and the University of Calgary.

Canadian nationals arriving in Qatar may enter the country without prior visa arrangements. Passengers with Qatar as their end destination may enter by obtaining a visa on arrival, a service extended to 33 countries, with Canada being one of them.

The Boeing 777 on the Montreal route has a two-class operation, offering 42 seats in Business in a spacious 2–2–2 cabin layout, with a seat pitch of 78 inches that is already the envy of competitor airlines as the seats stretch into lie-flat beds, a key demand of the corporate traveller.

In Economy, the Boeing 777 offers 217 seats in a 3–3–3 configuration with a pitch of up to 34-inch, which is among the most generous of any international airline flying wide-body aircraft on long-haul routes.

The in-flight interactive entertainment system offers a choice of more than 900 audio and video on demand options, available to every passenger in both cabins.

Qatar Airways currently operates a modern fleet of 94 aircraft to 98 key business and leisure destinations across Europe, Middle East, Africa, Asia Pacific, North and South America.

The airline started off the year with a focus on Europe, launching three new destinations on the continent – Bucharest, Budapest and Brussels.

On March 6, Qatar Airways adds Stuttgart to its global network, followed on April 6 with new flights to the historic Syrian city of Aleppo – the airline’s milestone 100th destination. Flights to Shiraz, Qatar Airways’ third gateway in Iran begin on June 5, followed 10 days later on June 15 by scheduled services to Venice, the carrier’s third destination in Italy.

2. Porter Airlines coming to Windsor

Flights to Toronto start in April
Porter Airlines is expected to offer three flights a day to Toronto out of Windsor Airport by late April.

The announcement will be made today, said a source who didn't want to be named.

The city has been trying to attract more airlines to fly out of its Windsor International Airport for years.

Porter Airlines, which calls itself Canada's third-largest scheduled carrier, is based at Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport, where it recently opened a new $49-million terminal and introduced many new routes.

In addition to Toronto, the airline serves Ottawa, Montreal, Quebec City, Moncton, Halifax, St. John's, Thunder Bay, Sudbury, New York, Chicago and Boston. It also has seasonal flights to Mt. Tremblant, Que., and Myrtle Beach, S.C.

Its flights to Toronto would put the airline in competition with Air Canada, which offers six flights out of Windsor daily on weekdays.

Porter Airlines will join four other air carriers at Windsor Airport including Air Canada, WestJet with flights to Calgary, Sunwing with seasonal flights to Cuba and the Dominican Republic, and Cameron Air with winter flights to Pelee Island.

When The Star reported in November that Porter might be coming to town, Windsor Airport CEO Federica Nazzani said the airline would likely start with flights to Toronto. She said service to other destinations could be added if the demand was there.

At that time, Nazzani said the airport had been discussing opportunities with Porter for more than two years.

She said the airline's arrival would be beneficial because Windsor and Essex County residents account for 1.4 million annual flights, but the local airport only sees about seven per cent of that traffic.

Many people fly out of Detroit and Toronto, she said.

Porter Airlines has expanded in the last few years and has ordered up to 10 new aircraft, potentially increasing its fleet to 30 by 2012. Four new planes are expected by the spring. The airline flies 70-seat Bombardier Aerospace Q400 turboprop airplanes.

3. Airline staff fear for jobs
WINNIPEG - Scores of Winnipeg's Air Canada staffers held a rally Friday over fears for their jobs and for thousands of others.

About 80 of the unionized airplane maintenance employees at a St. James hangar gathered outside the complex to hear Liberal MP Kevin Lamoureux (Winnipeg North) tell them he's pushing the federal Conservative government to protect their livelihoods.

"Manitoba cannot afford to lose these types of jobs," he told media.

The workers claim the airline and another firm maintaining its planes, Aveos Fleet Performance Inc., plan to move their work to El Salvador or possibly other countries. They say the change would kill at least 500 jobs in Winnipeg and a few thousand positions in other Canadian cities.

Lorne Hammerberg, president of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers Local 714, said the groundwork for the move was laid in the past few years when Air Canada "hived off" its technical services to Aveos, "a whole different entity" with facilities in Canada and El Salvador.

"They've told us in the past that there is no future for heavy maintenance in Canada," he said. "If it's not happening today, it's going to happen down the road."

Aveos spokesman Michael Kuhn said he's "quite surprised at this whole allegation" after the company has repeatedly assured the employees for four years that it's not moving their work away.

"Work from El Salvador has actually come to Canada". "Not the other way around."

4. Canada bars entry to Indian Airlines hijacker
Toronto: Canada has refused to re-admit the mastermind of the 1984 Indian Airline hijacking who was deported to India last year.

Parminder Singh Saini, 47, who was the leader of five Sikh militants who hijacked the Srinagar-Delhi flight to Lahore July 6, 1984, had filed a plea in a federal court Feb 3 to seek re-entry into Canada.

However, in its ruling Feb 9, the court dismissed Saini's plea, deeming him a threat to public security, according to a report.

He led the five militants in hijacking the Indian Airlines flight to Lahore, with 255 passengers.

The hijack drama ended after a 17-hour stand-off, with the hijackers surrendering to the Pakistani authorities.

After a trial in Pakistan, Saini was sentenced to death by a Lahore court. But the death sentence was commuted to life term. He was released after 10 years and asked to leave Pakistan.

In 1995, Saini entered Canada illegally under the name of Balbir Singh with a fake Afghan passport arranged by the Pakistanis. He maintained that he lied about his identity for fear of being deported to India.

After his arrival here, he earned a BA degree and a law degree even as he fought his deportation order.

Later, Saini applied to the Law Society of Upper Canada to be allowed to practice. But his application was turned down on grounds of his criminal background even as he regretted his past and said he deserves a shot at life in this country.

Referring to the 1984 hijacking, he had said, "I had no legitimate right to do that. It's not legal."

Based on his terrorist past and lying about his identify, the Law Society ruled that Saini has failed to prove that he is a man of good character and thus doesn't deserve to practice in Canada.

Before his deportation, Saini was attached to his brother's immigration consultancy firm Singh and Associates based in Mississauga on the outskirts of Toronto.

NEHA JAIN

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