All Transport stories

Air passenger rights head to Supreme Court

Canada’s top court is hearing a case about an oh-so-common travel nightmare: flight cancellations. 

What happened: Members of the airline industry are appealing Canada’s air passenger protection rules in the Supreme Court, arguing that the feds don’t have the right to impose rules on foreign carriers and that compensation amounts go beyond passengers’ losses. 

Supersonic travel makes a comeback with Boom test flight

We’re one step closer to being able to fly from Vancouver to Tokyo in 6 hours — barely enough time to get through two in-flight movies (or one recent Scorcese flick).

What happened: Boom, an aviation startup building supersonic commercial jets, completed the first test flight of its prototype aircraft, the XB-1. 

Boeing woes likely leading to higher airfare

The odds that Boeing’s quality control issues will impact you directly — say, by a panel blowing off your plane mid-flight — are still low. The odds that they’ll impact you indirectly through pricier airfare, however, are quite high. 

Driving the news: Airlines are warning that they are facing delays for new planes from Boeing, which will reduce the number of routes they can fly and likely push up prices for flyers. 

Bad news for the aviation industry

Boeing is having such a bad month that it’s taking all of our restraint to not make a tasteless joke comparing its performance to the door that flew off Alaska Airlines Flight 1282

What happened: Aviation industry officials “increasingly believe” workers at the Boeing factory forgot to put on the bolts meant to secure the door plug that blew off the 737 MAX 9 jet carrying Alaska Airlines passengers earlier this month, per The Wall Street Journal

Electric cars hit the race track

Electric car racing might not be popular enough for its own Netflix show (yet), but Formula E cars are blossoming into stars for the legacy automakers that own them. 

Driving the news: As the hype around Formula One continues to dominate the racing world, its less exciting but environmentally friendly sibling Formula E is becoming ground zero for the innovations that are fuelling the EV race off the track, according to Reuters.

Trouble in the air space

Boeing shares plummeted ~8% yesterday, which was to be expected after one of its planes blew a freakin’ hole in mid-air. Sorry, we still can’t believe that actually happened.

Driving the news: The 737 Max is again the most talked-about plane in aviation for all the wrong reasons.

Imagine, faster Canadian trains

A new bill is trying to move “fast trains” from a European ideal into a Canadian reality. 

Driving the news: Canada’s passenger train network is notoriously plagued with delays. But a proposed law would force railway owners and operators to prioritize passenger-filled trains over freight trains in any scheduling conflict — or pay a $250,000 fine for every infraction. 

GM buys itself a win over Tesla

Fed up with trying to crack the code of Tesla’s low manufacturing costs, GM decided it would just buy the EV maker’s secret weapon. 

Driving the news: General Motors has bought casting company Tooling & Equipment International (TEI), one of the manufacturing specialists that has allowed Tesla to produce vehicles at lower costs than its competitors, per Reuters

Brian Kingston on Canada’s transition to EVs

Can airships make a comeback?

Rarely can one event kill off an entire industry, but that’s exactly what happened to airship travel when the LZ 129 Hindenburg burst into flames above New Jersey in 1937.  

Seventy-six years later, a new line of blimp-trepreneurs are hoping the stigma has worn off.   

What happened: Pathfinder 1 — a prototype electric airship from the Sergey Brin-backed startup LTA Research — began flight testing yesterday. Clocking in at 407 feet long, it’s the largest aircraft in the world and the biggest one to take to the skies since the 1930s.