Travel News Today

The summer air rush has begun at Halifax Stanfield International Airport.

A number of airlines have increased services to a number of destinations for the busy summer season while other carriers have started or will start service to new destinations.

Air Canada has made stronger connections with the West with its Halifax-to-Calgary service that started April 1. On June 16, the airline will begin daily service to Edmonton, giving Atlantic Canadians working the Alberta oilpatch another way to get home.

On June 30, Air Canada will begin a twice-daily flight between Halifax and Gander and, for cross-border business, Air Canada has added new daily service to LaGuardia, in New York.

WestJet is also strengthening its western service. It begins its connection to Edmonton today and will start a second daily service to Calgary on June 27.

Porter Airlines, a new Canadian carrier, will make its presence known to Atlantic Canada starting June 29. Porter will do four flights a day from Halifax to Toronto's City Centre Airport. Two flights will be through Montreal and two through Ottawa.

Four American carriers are doing more cross-border business out of Halifax this summer.

Northwest Airlines has resumed its daily connection between Halifax and Detroit with a daily flight and will add a second daily flight at the end of June. Both those flights will operate until Nov. 2.

American Airlines and United Airlines have both brought Chicago closer to Nova Scotia. American Airlines has already started up its weekend service to O'Hare Airport in Chicago and United will give Halifax a daily Chicago service starting June 7.

A new service for Halifax will be flights to Atlanta. Delta Airlines plans a Saturday-only service beginning June 9.

Internationally, Icelandair and Zoom Airlines are back in the picture.

After an absence of several years from the Halifax scene, Icelandair is returning with three flights a week to Keflavik starting May 17. Many travellers are seeing this service as another connection to such European destinations as Glasgow, London, Paris and Frankfurt.

Zoom Airlines is also back with flights to Belfast starting June 8 and Paris starting June 12.

The Halifax airport set a passenger record in 2006 with 3.3 million people. Airport officials expect to surpass that mark this year.

(Chronicle Herald)