Airline dispute affects NHL

[CHIMO]

A dispute between Canada and the United States over charter airline flights is causing havoc for sports teams across North America and could disrupt the coming NHL season.

Transportation officials in both countries have banned charter airlines carrying sports teams from making multiple stops, something that had been allowed for years. If the bans remain in place, NHL teams will have difficulty playing back-to-back games in the United States or Canada and could be forced to return to their home country between each game. The ban also affects the Toronto Blue Jays and the Toronto Raptors.

The impact is already being felt.

Miami Air International, a Florida company that provides charter services for the Blue Jays and five U.S.-based NHL teams including the Pittsburgh Penguins, was told this week to cancel nearly 60 flights to Canada in September for NHL preseason games. The company must also drop four Jays trips.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/sports/airline-dispute-affects-nhl/article1277006/

Wonder how this affects private flights?

[Spazito]

1. Geez, this is beyond ridiculous, imo

Some cross border spats are more immature then Grade One students on the playground and this is certainly one of them.

[DRex]

2. Nooooo!

Surely nothing this stupid can interfere with hockey! The lockout almost broke me. Hopefully this dissolves into nothing...

[BolivarianHero]

3. This is the fault of the Obama administration...

They want to crack down on Canadian airlines flying Canadian sports teams between American cities (a ludicrous idea when dealing with a league that engages in compeitions that transcend borders), which in turn has forced Ottawa to retaliate by doing the same thing to American airlines. In theory, this will be of net benefit to Canadian business interests because there will be more American teams forced to use Canadian airlines than there will be Canadians forced to use American airlines in the states.

I think professional sports ought to be exempted from these sorts of regulations; there really is no excuse for this crap.