Business Round-Up: Big boost for Copenhagen-Canada travellers

Air Transat, a low-price Canadian airline, will inaugurate a new regular route between Montreal and Copenhagen from 16 June 2020.

After running as a summer route until September 20, the route will be re-scheduled to twice a week.

The route will be operated on a long-haul Airbus A321neoLR, with 199 seats divided between premium club and economy class.

Monster plane to fly to Toronto
Air Transat is currently in the process of being merged with Air Canada, which has brought more welcome news to Denmark in relation to its existing route between Toronto and Copenhagen.

Currently, it accommodates 400 passengers on a Boeing 777-300ER in high season and 298 passengers on a Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner during the off-season.

According to Check-in.dk, the airline will replace them with a Boeing 777-300ER equipped with 450 seats (economy: 298, premium: 24, business class: 24) from 1 June 2020 onwards.

The 450-seat aircraft will be the second largest to visit the airport, trailing only Emirate’s Airbus A380-800.

YouSee could be facing an exodus over Discovery departure
YouSee customers are up in arms following the news they will lose 11 Discovery channels from the beginning of next year. According to a YouGov survey, many of the 1.2 million households will want to cancel their subscriptions. Among the channels are K5, K6, K9, and Eurosport 1 and 2, which all from time to time show sports content, including some of the men’s national team games. Up until the end of the 2018-19 football season, K6 showed a good number of English Premier League games. Discovery formally handed in three months’ notice at the end of September, citing a new policy that undervalued the 11 channels by excluding them from YouSee cable packages.

Fewer travellers opting to fly when within Denmark
Domestic passenger numbers leaving Copenhagen Airport have declined by 7 percent over the last year, according to figures made available by Copenhagen Airport. Aarhus Airport has also reported a dip. The reason is simple: travellers are getting more environmentally conscious and choosing slower alternatives. Passengers numbers have similarly fallen in Sweden, by 9 percent according to Swedavia, where the green movement ‘Flygskam’ is having an impact. Nevertheless, Copenhagen Airport has reported an increase in international flights. Over the summer months of June, July and August,  9 million passengers travelled via the airport, while the number of intercontinental travellers rose by 6.4 percent compared to last year.

More eastern European workers joining country’s biggest trade union
More eastern European workers are enlisting with Denmark’s largest trade union, 3F. The union now has 4,389 members from eastern European countries, particularly Ukraine, which is double the number it had in 2016. 3F attributes the rise to new strategies such as publishing leaflets in 14 different languages, and forming 11 nationwide networks and nine different Facebook groups. Several eastern European embassies were also asked to collaborate. “It is extremely important to teach the new colleagues about the Danish model,” explained 3F general-secretary Søren Heisel to a4nu.dk.

Bang & Olufsen revenue dips
Bang & Olufsen has confirmed a 30.3 percent dip in Q1 revenue to 419 million kroner for its 2019-20 fiscal year. Nevertheless, the luxury electronic goods manufacturer, which in the late summer confirmed it was unofficially up for sale, remains optimistic about the launch of some new products and is accordingly forecasting single digit percentage revenue growth for its next full year.