You use your face to unlock your phone, so why not use it to board a flight?

After Canadian airlines followed up a disastrous summer with a somehow even more disastrous holiday season full of cancelled flights and luggage ending up in donation bins, the bar is looking pretty low for Porter Airlines to swoop in and grab some market share.

Somebody needs to make Top Gun, but for regular airline pilots, because the profession is facing a shortage and could really use a shiny new recruitment tool.

Air Canada and WestJet have been cutting domestic flight routes in recent months, a move that one business group thinks is fishier than an in-flight meal.

The battle between blue and green bubbles is about to get a whole lot uglier as cars evolve into drivable devices and tech companies set their sights on partnerships with automakers. 

In today’s normal, nothing-to-see-here news: VIA Rail is adding ‘buffer cars’ to its oldest passenger trains to absorb impact in the event of a crash. 

The legroom situation is probably not improving, but one aspect of air travel is about to get a bit better: you’ll soon be able to fly (short distances) in Canada without burning any fuel. Air Canada is buying 30 electric-hybrid planes and says it will offer fully electric short-haul flights as early as 2028.

Why it matters: It’s a first step towards reducing emissions from aviation, which is a sector that’s particularly difficult to decarbonize and accounts for around 2.5% of total carbon emissions.

After soaring during the pandemic, the cost of shipping goods across the ocean is falling just as dramatically, down 60% from the beginning of the year, per The Wall Street Journal.

Why it matters: Cheaper shipping rates will ease some of the upward pressure on prices (good), but they also show that consumer demand is falling and the global economy is cooling (bad), which naturally sends off a warning light on our recession dashboard. 

Just when you thought things couldn’t get any worse for Canada’s airlines and airports, the government has launched an investigation into the flight cancellations making headlines. 

If you find yourself hailing a ride in Wuhan and Chongqing, you won’t have to worry about making awkward chitchat with the driver… because soon, there won’t be one.