travel – Page 2 – mackaycartoons

Friday January 8, 2016

January 7, 2016 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday January 8, 2016

Ultra-low-cost carrier planning flights from Hamilton airport

Canada’s latest airline will unveil its plans for flights out of Hamilton airport on Wednesday.

That’s when Dean Dacko, chief commercial officer of NewLeaf Travel, the country’s new ultra-low-cost air carrier, will unveil the company’s plans for making Hamilton one of its hubs.

Details of the announcement remain a closely guarded secret, but in a news release airport officials promise “NewLeaf plans to revolutionize the Canadian travel market.”

NewLeaf’s bare-bones website promises its service will feature “No more extra costs for things you don’t want” and “You pay for your seat and the rest is up to you.”

Wednesday’s announcement will include details on non-stop routes, pricing and booking.

NewLeaf announced its interest in the city in June, saying it would make its headquarters in Winnipeg with bases in Hamilton and Kelowna.

2005

Ultra-low-cost carriers — also called no-frills or budget airlines — offer lower fares, making up for lower ticket prices by charging for extras such as food, priority boarding and baggage. The largest such operator is United States-based Southwest Airlines.

Aircraft and crews for the NewLeaf flights will be supplied by Kelowna-based Flair Airlines.

Ultra-low-cost carriers are new to Canada’s aviation industry and Hamilton airport executives have been keen to get at least one located here as a boost to their long-cherished dream of turning the John C. Munro Hamilton International Airport into a passenger destination.

While they have long argued that 2 million people live within an hour’s drive of the airport, its passenger history has been one of soaring hopes followed by bitter disappointment as more than 20 airlines have come and gone through the facility.

2003

Passenger traffic peaked in 2003 at about 1 million when the airport was the eastern hub for WestJet, before the airline moved the hub to Toronto’s Lester B. Pearson International Airport. In 2014 it handled 332,000 passengers.

The only year-round scheduled service from Hamilton now is a single daily WestJet return flight to Calgary. That’s in addition to seasonal service to vacation spots.

NewLeaf is headed by Jim Young, a former vice-president and chief marketing officer at Denver-based Frontier Airlines who also served for six months as president of upstart Canada Jetlines Ltd.(Source: Hamilton Spectator)

Published in the Saskatoon Star Phoenix, Saturday, January 9, 2016

Thursday April 2, 2015

April 2, 2015 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday April 2, 2015

At least 40 current, former senators asked to account for questionable expense claims

At least 40 current and former senators have received confidential letters from Auditor General Michael Ferguson about questionable expense claims, and one of them has been asked to account for more than $100,000, sources have told CTV News.

The senators were tight-lipped Tuesday when asked about the letters — and whether they’ve been asked to pay back any money.

[slideshow_deploy id=’1787’]

Other senators have quietly repaid the money.

“If a senator is found with a … simple mistake, a good-faith mistake, it’s his decision to reimburse or not,” said Conservative Sen. Claude Carignan, the government Senate leader.

Insiders said Conservative Sen. Dan Lang gave back money after auditors questioned a flight that appeared to be unrelated to Senate business, but he would not confirm that to CTV News.

“No I will answer for my audit when the audit is completed, just like I made a commitment to the auditor general,” he said.

Sources said Liberal Sen. Serge Joyal also had a suspicious expense claim, but Joyal refused to discuss the matter with CTV News.

“Well I think this is a decision that takes place between the auditor general and ourselves individually,” he said.

He repeated that comment when asked whether he had paid any money back.

Auditors are matching travel and expense claims with phone records. They’ve been combing through the expenses of 117 current and former senators who sat in the red chamber from April 2001 to March 2013. (Source: CTV News)

Published on National Newswatch, The Winnipeg Free Press, Edmonton Journal, and Nanaimo Daily News

Friday August 29, 2014

August 28, 2014 by Graeme MacKay

By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday August 29, 2014

Sunwing flight to Cuba forced back to Toronto after disruption

A Sunwing Airlines flight headed to Cuba was forced to turn back to Toronto’s Pearson airport Wednesday after an apparent disruption by two passengers.

In a statement, Sunwing spokesperson Janine Chapman said the flight turned back after two “unruly” female passengers allegedly became disruptive after they had “consumed a significant quantity of their duty free alcohol purchase in the plane’s lavatory.”

Chapman said the passengers lit a cigarette, triggering a smoke alarm, before getting into a “physical altercation with each other.”

The pair also allegedly made a “threat against the aircraft, which was considered non-credible given their condition,” Chapman said.

NORAD confirmed Wednesday night that two Canadian fighter jets escorted the passenger aircraft back to Toronto’s Pearson International Airport as “a precautionary measure.”

Earlier reports suggest the plane was near Florida when it had to turn around.

Police said two women, both in their mid-20s, were arrested and remain in custody. Charges are pending as investigators interview witnesses, Peel police said.

Sunwing Airlines Flight 656 departed at 4:30 p.m., and was en route to Varadero via Manzanillo de Cuba Airport.

NORAD said in the statement that once the aircraft was safely on the ground, the CF-18 fighter jets returned to their home base in Bagotville, Que.

Sunwing said the flight was scheduled to take off again from Pearson at approximately 11 p.m. with a new flight crew.

This is the second time in just over a month that a plane travelling from Toronto has been forced to turn back. On July 25, a Panama-bound plane returned to Pearson Airport after a passenger allegedly made threats while aboard the aircraft.

The man was escorted off the plane by a tactical team of police officers. He was charged with counts of mischief, endangering safety, and uttering threats. (Source: CTV News)

OTHER MEDIA

Posted to Yahoo Canada News.

Wednesday April 29, 2014

April 29, 2014 by Graeme MacKay

By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday April 29, 2014

Gardiner grief: delays, lane closures a sign of things to come

Long-term lane closures on Toronto’s busy Gardiner Expressway begin today and mark the start of a long-term repair project that will add extra time to an already busy morning commute for the next few years.

On Monday morning the left lanes on both the eastbound and westbound Gardiner were closed between Park Lawn Road and Strachan Avenue. The closures are part of long-term construction work on the Gardiner that will continue through to 2016.

“On my way in to work this morning, the road was already slower than usual,” CBC’s Linda Ward reported.

In the early morning hours there were further lane restrictions eastbound from the Humber River to Carlaw. Those extra closures were removed up as of 5 a.m.

Things didn’t get much easier as the morning wore on. CBC overnight reporter Tony Smyth reported stop-and-go traffic on the eastbound Gardiner at 6:40 a. m

As a result of the construction work, eastbound Lake Shore Boulevard was also very slow Monday morning.

There were also a dozen collisions on the Gardiner Monday morning, three of them involving injuries.

Other details about the long-term repair work on the Gardiner:

The work and the lane closures it creates will continue until December 2016 with a pause for next summer’s Pan Am Games.

During this period, crews will repair three bridges on the Gardiner between the Humber River and Park Lawn Road. There will also be work done this summer to replace the centre median between Ellis Avenue and Dufferin Street.

GO Transit officials say they expect the work will cause delays during peak hours on the following bus routes: 16, 21 and 31.

“You’ll definitely need to give yourself more time in the mornings,” Ward reported. “These delays are going to be the new normal for the next few years.” (Source: CBC News)

Wednesday, April 23, 2014

April 23, 2014 by Graeme MacKay

By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday, April 23, 2014

Air Canada to consider firing workers in baggage toss video

Air Canada is apologizing after a video purporting to show a baggage handler dropping luggage from roughly six metres off the ground hit social media.

The video, taken by a passenger on board a plane, shows a baggage handler dropping bags from a boarding gate to a luggage bin.

The video posted April 18 on YouTube is titled “How Air Canada Handles Your Baggage,” but it doesn’t say where or when the incident occurred.

The airline responded to CBC News Saturday, saying the incident in the video is under investigation and would not go unpunished.

“We apologize for the totally unacceptable mishandling of our passengers’ baggage captured on video,” said Angela Mah, a spokesperson with Air Canada.

“We are in the process of identifying the employees involved whose employment will be terminated pending the outcome of our investigation. Their actions clearly contravened our standard baggage handling procedures which require gate-checked bags to be hand carried to the ramp.”

The video is generating a wide range of comments both on the video site and Twitter, with some people lambasting Air Canada and saying they won’t fly on the airline again.

Others were more charitable saying the airline should not be judged by the actions of one baggage handler.

In Twitter posts on Saturday, Air Canada says it has launched an investigation and is “very disappointed & sorry about the actions in the video.”

“The actions don’t reflect our procedure. We apologize for this,” the airline said in another tweet. (Source: CBC News)

Inspired by the torture wheels featured in the Inquisition scene from Mel Brook’s film “The History of the World, Part I”:

SOCIAL MEDIA

This was the cartoon of the day at Yahoo Canada News, and was reprinted in the Saskatoon Star Phoenix & The Regina Leader Post