Canadian airline ditch some routes to the U.S. as tension rises between two countries
Canadian Flair Airlines has ended its flights to Nashville, Tennesse, as the political climate between the U.S. and its neighbor to the north sours.
'I can confirm that Flair won't be flying to Nashville this summer,' Flair Communications Director Kim Bowie said, according to WKRN. Flair's site indicates that the flights to Nashville are the airline's only route to Tennessee.
The Department of Tourist Development commissioner, Mark Ezell, said during a meeting on Monday of the Tennessee House Finance, Ways and Means Committee that it's a loss of roughly 18,000 seats.
'We see travelers quickly react to political news, and then we see that great marketing overcomes that traveler settlement,' he noted.
Ezell said that while the department is concerned about the cancellation of Flair flights to Nashville, he argued that the state will be able to overcome the difficulties because of the state's many attractions.
'Do you really want to miss seeing the Smoky Mountains,' he said. 'Do you really want to miss getting to go to Graceland?'
Canadians' relationship with their U.S. neighbors has been strained following President Donald Trump 's second election victory and the enacting of widespread tariffs against the country. The U.S. national anthem has been booed at NHL and NBA games, and American goods, such as whiskey from Tennessee, have been removed from Canadian shelves.
There have also been reports of Canadians canceling travel plans to the U.S. According to the travel agency Flight Centre Travel Group Canada, leisure travel to the U.S. decreased 40 percent last month compared to February last year.
'Canadians are angry,' former Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said earlier this month. 'We're going to choose to not go on vacation to Florida or Old Orchard Beach or wherever. We're gonna choose to try to buy Canadian products and forgo bourbon and other classic American products. We're probably going to continue booing the American National Anthem.'
Meanwhile, Air Canada has announced that it will limit the number of flights to Arizona, Florida, and Nevada. Similarly, WestJet told the Canadian Press news agency that many bookings had changed from the U.S. to Mexico and the Caribbean. Sunwing Airlines has removed all of its flights to the U.S., and Air Transat has reduced its U.S. flights.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Press and Journal
39 minutes ago
- Press and Journal
Earthquakes, mistaken identity and a 14-hour wait for a ride: Hitchhiker lifts lid on journey from Aberdeen to Hong Kong
Despite only being halfway through his journey, John Dougan has already been mistaken multiple times for a Russian-American defector, survived an earthquake and forced to wait 14 hours for his next ride. John left the Granite City two months ago to set out on his epic hitchhiking route that will span over 14,000km and up to 25 countries – his final destination, Aberdeen, Hong Kong. The 32-year-old recently found himself worn out and struggling with his mental health. John was seeking a more independent life, which led him to quit his corporate job and create his social channels. He wanted to share honest content with users, highlighting the highs and lows of his trip. His journey across the globe has thrown up various challenges beyond the regular hurdles of hitchhiking. John, originally from Glasgow, has been stopped multiple times at borders and mistaken American-Russian defector John Mark Dougan. Not only do the two share the same first and last names, but they both have the same birthday. John Mark Dougan is a former U.S. Marine who fled to Russia in 2016, accused of running websites that spread Russian propaganda. He said: 'At the borders, they are a little bit worried we are the same person, so it became a problem 'But because Turkey is such a big country I haven't had to deal with it in a few weeks, thankfully' said John. John Mark Dougan now follows the hitchhiker on Instagram and often likes and comments on his posts. John spoke about the troubles he faced with getting from place to place. He said: 'It can become quite a challenge, but it depends where you are. Cities are very difficult to get out of and its all about positioning. It becomes a bit of a skill that you pick up and you learn techniques.' He told The Press & Journal that cultural differences have played a huge part in his journey so far, explaining that some cultures are more open to hitchhiking than others. 'You see countries through a different lens, and you get to know the people and the culture of a country much better,' John added. However, it hasn't all been plain sailing for John. While at the German-Austrian border, he was left waiting 14 hours for a lift as nobody stopped. He continued: 'It was hard because it was still relatively early into the trip, and it was one of those moments where I thought, is this even going to be possible?' While in southeastern Turkey, a 5.8 magnitude earthquake struck the area John was passing through. At least one person has died in the quake. John said: 'I've been in a couple of earthquakes before but when you wake up during the night and the whole building is shaking, its quite scary.' On top of waiting for a ride and navigating an earthquake, John has also had to balance his budget. Having travelled before, he's no stranger to the cost of seeing the world. Money was a topic that came up in most conversations on his journey towards Hong Kong. Many drivers have discussed inflation and how it has affected countries in Europe as well as Turkey and Albania. He said: 'Countries that were once inexpensive to travel and live in are now almost equivalent to European prices.' John is currently in southeastern Turkey and plans to go on to the Caucasus region, across the Caspian Sea and into Kazakhstan and China. To follow John's journey, visit his TikTok and Instagram, where he shares the highs and lows of his trip. He is also using the platforms to raise awareness and funds for mental health charities, another reason for his expedition. John is hoping to reach Aberdeen, Hong Kong by October but is now hoping to extend his travels into a bigger trip around the world – minus the hitchhiking.
The National
an hour ago
- The National
Ex-Celtic boss Neil Lennon sets lofty Dunfermline ambition
The former Celtic captain and manager was recently confirmed as the Pars manager on a permanent basis after taking over temporarily towards the end of last season, and keeping them in the Championship. It was a move that raised eyebrows at first, especially with his recent jobs being at some of the biggest clubs in Romania and Cyprus and also with the Hoops and Hibs on his CV. But Lennon is encouraged by the ambition being showing at East End Park and is matching that himself with the aim of competing in continental competition for the first time in eight years. "The ultimate ambition for us all is to try and get promotion and get back into the European picture," he told BBC Scotland. Read more: Evidence of the smart improvements Brendan Rodgers is making at Celtic O'Riley 'not completely happy' at Brighton as ex-Celtic player makes feelings known "It's a long way off, but you've got to have ambition, you've got to have targets. "I'm not saying we're going to do it in one year, but hopefully two. We can sort of see the signs that we're going in the right direction." The 53-year-old has explained how owner and American based entrepreneur James Bord had made him feel wanted ahead of taking the decision to stay on. "I think we had in one week, about seven phone calls where he convinced me to come, and I liked that," Lennon added. "He made me feel that I was their man. And I feel a sense of loyalty to him now. "I've got a good relationship with him. I like the way he works. I like his ideas on the game. It's new for me to learn as well. "Ultimately, it's about building a team that's going to be competitive in the league. It's going to get people through the door. That's what I want to do. And play a really strong brand of football."
Scotsman
an hour ago
- Scotsman
Inside the BBC Hunting the Whisky Bandits
Sign up to our daily newsletter – Regular news stories and round-ups from around Scotland direct to your inbox Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... If, like me, you are a whisky fan, you'll no doubt have seen some interesting adverts on social media promising amazing returns on investing in whisky casks. The trading of casks has been around for decades, but it's becoming more common these days as the industry faces one of the biggest boom times. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Many of these cask companies have hit the headlines for being fraudulent. One of the biggest was the case of Casey Alexander, 26, who scammed $13m [£10.4m] out of American pensions, with buyers thinking they were investing in Scotland's lucrative whisky trade. There is no official or published record of the buying and selling of whisky casks and no established legal process for the trade. According to the Scotch Whisky Association (SWA), exports of the drink in 2022 grew by 37 per cent by value to £6.2 billion. The membership organisation, regarded for its work representing the Scotch whisky sector, does not offer advice to private investors. While these fraudulent investments have been sporadically reported, it has taken the BBC's Disclosure programme to showcase just some of the people who have been scammed - as well as confronting some of the businesses doing so. The programme and podcast came out in late March. Last month whisky writer and Keeper of the Quaich Felipe Schrieberg , independent whisky broker, market analyst and consultant Mark Littler - who set up educational tool Protect your Cask last year - and one of the producers on the show, Laurence Cook, hosted an online webinar to discuss how the programme was made and gave their thoughts on what can be done. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Nomad_Soul - Mr Schrieberg said there should be little trust in any business advertising sales of whisky casks . He said: 'The way that most of these firms work is they're either selling something that doesn't exist or they're selling something that does exist, but the prospective client or investor is massively overpaying for it.' He added: 'We think that the current wave of what we're seeing is many orders of magnitude larger than the last scammer wave of 25 years ago and it's our opinion, based on what we've seen and researched, that the industry response to the problem has been fairly lacklustre.' Mr Cook, a freelance audio/visual BBC producer, said he was not sure this investigation would be as good as his former work on Donald Trump's golf course in Aberdeen, but then quickly changed his mind once he saw the scale of the problem. He said: 'Sam Poling, who's the reporter on it [the show], gave me a PowerPoint presentation, which detailed just a slither of the findings and just that little kind of amuse bouche was enough to let me know that this world of cask whisky investment fraud and the people behind it was just as mad and just as bad as as any other story that I'd worked on. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad 'But also it was ongoing. This is not a historical story, this is something that's happening right now. So there was a real public interest angle to this, which was about catching the baddies right, it was about proving that these people are doing what victims were saying that they were doing. 'I think it's probably quite important that this was made by people who could look at whisky as a commodity rather than as something kind of holy - not to characterise people in the industry too much in that direction. But it was useful to look at it as basically a criminal commodity, a thing that you can use to extract money from people.' Mr Cook said many people had been broken in the aftermath of being scammed. He said: 'We found people who hadn't told their families the true scale of the loss. We found people who had contemplated taking their own lives. 'We found people who would talk to us for background conversations, but wouldn't talk on air because of the shame that they felt beyond the financial. And I should say that that nobody that we spoke to could afford to lose money, nobody we spoke to wasn't massively affected by this. But beyond the financial, there are massive massive human costs here, which are also about a lack of trust. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad 'There are lots of people out there left in the dark as to whether their asset exists or not, or if it ever did or if it sold multiple times and it consumes people's lives. It totally occupies their mind all the time. 'It's a horrendous thing. To be burgled is the invasion of your space, but to be defrauded, there is no locale. It's just all in your head and your heart. There's a lot of people that are really broken by this.' As for what can be done? Mr Schrieberg said the Scotch Whisky Association needs to do more, adding: 'Great whisky relies on honesty, integrity and transparency. The best stories come from this, the reason we fell in love with the industry comes from this. 'The best distilleries work very much valuing these principles and all of a sudden we're seeing something that undermines it on every single one of these fronts. Because the SWA's remit is to protect the values that make Scotch whisky great and therefore keep it as a valuable product held in high esteem around the world, they should be weighing in - that's my opinion. There is a good debate to be had about that, but the industry's got to do more.' Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Independent bottler the Whisky Baron has launched a petition calling on better regulation of the Scotch whisky market. A spokesperson said: 'Despite whiskey being Scotland's national drink and a key part of the UK economy, HMRC have done nothing to protect or regulate the cask industry. 'The Scotch Whisky Association continues to protect and advocate for Scotch as a category, but they have done very little with their position to make tangible changes in the cask market. 'Distilleries are hands-off with the issue and even societies within the whisky world like the Keepers of the Quaich have remained quiet. Tens of millions of pounds of fraud has already been uncovered and as a hands-on trader entrenched within the industry I can assure you we have only scratched the surface. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad 'Please act now so that we can put an end to this madness. Scotch is a drink of the people and we the people need to protect it from these rogue traders.' In response to whisky investment companies recently going bust, and whisky cask investment in general, a spokesperson for the Scotch Whisky Association said: 'We are aware of the dissolution this week of two companies who deal in personal cask investment. This is obviously of significant concern to those who have invested in these companies, and we are signposting those who have been impacted to the appointed administrators for queries on cask purchases. The Scotch Whisky Association (SWA) is a trade association which represents its members on a range of issues, but we are not involved with, nor do we regulate, the cask investment trade. The SWA is not involved with the companies that have entered administration, and they are not members of the SWA.
