Good morning. Before this newsletter takes off for the year, we’re looking back at a bumpy time for airlines, passengers and, especially, Boeing – more on that below, along with the citizenship tally for lost Canadians and justice for Gisèle Pelicot. But first:
Not the best year for Boeing.JASON REDMOND/AFP/Getty Images
We’re heading into the last weekend before Christmas, which means airports are about to get crazy – these are the busiest days for flights in Canada, and passengers tend to be unruly. If you’re one of the millions who have a fear of flying (totally fair, even if it’s safer than driving), or if you’re hoping Air Canada will let you board with your centuries-old cello, I might suggest skipping this particular Morning Update. Otherwise, here’s a not-at-all-exhaustive look at the turbulent year in air travel.
The hot seat
Good news for Air Canada in 2024: The company managed to avoid a strike with its 5,000 pilots in October, and no one successfully lifted $21-million in gold bars from its warehouse at Pearson International Airport. (Gold heists are so 2023.) The bad news for chief executive Michael Rousseau is that he was just hauled before Parliament to defend Air Canada’s new fees to change seats and its carry-on ban for basic fares. MPs also wanted to know why, after 17 years at the airline’s Montreal head office, Rousseau had made so little progress learning French.
But Air Canada really hit a sour note when it bumped Sheku Kanneh-Mason’s cello from his Cincinnati-to-Toronto flight last Wednesday. Kanneh-Mason, a young star in classical music, had purchased a ticket for his 300-year-old, €3-million cello, since it’s too long to fit in the overhead compartment and must travel in its own seat. For some reason, the airline’s boarding agent refused to let Kanneh-Mason board with the instrument – which he wasn’t about to gate-check – so the plane took off without them and his sold-out Toronto concert was cancelled hours before its start. International headlines quickly followed; the musician and his sister, pianist Isata Kanneh-Mason, headed to their next stop at Carnegie Hall instead. They closed out their performance with Gustav Holst’s carol In the Bleak Midwinter.
The Boeing breakdown
One could make a strong argument that all parts of a plane are essential parts of a plane, but if I had to name the most absolutely essential, I suppose I’d go with the doors, the wheels, and the cockpit. Oh: and the wings. Plus the engine. Also the brakes.
You don’t need to click on every one of those links – you can probably guess where they lead. The problems for Boeing started in January, when a door blew out on a jet shortly after takeoff. In March, at least 50 people were hurt when pilots lost control of a plane and it plummeted in mid-air. That same week, another Boeing jet had to make an emergency landing after flames started shooting out of one of its engines. In November, the main landing gear of yet another jet failed to extend, causing sparks and smoke to kick up from the runway when the plane touched down, off-balance, at high speed. Like pretty much every Boeing failure in 2024, it was caught on video.
Settle in, Butch and Suni.The Associated Press
And I haven’t even mentioned the astronauts, currently marooned on the International Space Station after NASA decided against using Boeing’s troubled Starliner capsule to bring them back to Earth. What was meant to be an eight-day trip in June has turned into an eight-month sojourn aboard the ISS for Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams – wait, scratch that, NASA just announced the astronauts will return no sooner than the end of March. They’ll catch a ride on Elon Musk’s SpaceX instead.
Given all that, it may be unsurprising that Boeing has racked up nearly US$8-billion in losses for the current year. Chief financial officer Brian West told analysts he expects the company will continue burning cash in 2025, which I’d contend is still better than burning engines.
The escape artist
Lastly, a grudging round of applause for Svetlana Dali, the 57-year-old stowaway who managed to slip aboard a flight bound for Paris out of JFK Airport in New York. She capitalized on the hordes of travellers – it was American Thanksgiving weekend – and got through the first checkpoint by blending in with a flight crew. Then she ducked past Delta Air Lines’ agents, who failed to ask for a boarding pass, and made her way onto the plane. Unfortunately for Dali, the seats were fully booked, so she evaded suspicion for hours by moving between the bathrooms.
The flight attendants finally caught on, and after a week spent in French custody, Dali was arrested by FBI agents upon her return to New York. She had a court date scheduled in Buffalo on Tuesday, but she cut off her ankle monitor and booked it for the Canadian border. Law enforcement officers again intercepted Dali, although she appears to have learned at least one lesson: This time, she tried to leave the country by bus.
A quick programming note: Morning Update will be on hiatus until the new year (but will not, I promise, use that time to try sneaking onto a transatlantic flight). We’ll see you back in your inbox on Jan. 2. Happy holidays!
Gisèle Pelicot at the Avignon courthouse yesterday.Manon Cruz/Reuters
Gisèle Pelicot – who waived her right to anonymity to allow France’s largest rape trial to be held in public – thanked her supporters yesterday after the court sentenced Pelicot’s ex-husband to 20 years in prison. All 51 men on trial in Avignon were found guilty. Read more about the verdict, and Pelicot’s remarkable bravery, here.
At home: According to the Parliamentary Budget Office, a bill to reinstate rights for lost Canadians could create around 115,000 new citizens in the next five years.
Abroad: The International Commission on Missing Persons estimates 150,000 people have disappeared in Syria since the civil war started in 2011. Family members and friends are still hoping to find them in the country’s prisons.
Shelling out: After a revamp of Canada’s copyright laws, artists will now get a cut when their work is resold at galleries or auction houses.
Standing in: The Decibel heads out on a trip to the setting of all those Hallmark Christmas episodes: Almonte, a small Ontario charmer masquerading as Anytown, U.S.A.
Saying cheese (please!!): Against all odds – and despite the shrieking protests of many children – the holiday family photo tradition continues.
