Thought of the Day - May 21 - What's Up With Air Canada

Over the past month I have been hearing many "stories" concerning Air Canada (sorry folks who brought this to my attention for the delay in getting to it). While we all know they are Canada's dominant carrier, and in these troubled times they will certainly receive some form of government bailout, rather than acting like the "bully-in-the-school-yard" or the "Crown Corporation" you would hope their management would take a slightly different approach.

I case you missed it. While the headlines read:

• "Air Canada re-equips wide-body 777s for cargo" the real story is "Air Canada price-gouges dependant customers for freight";

• "In March Air Canada cuts half of workforce" the real story is "Air Canada rehires 16,500 under CEWS in April";

• "Air Canada cuts back on domestic flights due to coronavirus" the real story is "Air Canada, our national airline, no longer flies to New Brunswick";

• "Air Canada provides a voucher good for two years" the real story is "Class action suit launched as Air Canada changes policy and refuses to provide refund on flights they cancelled";

• "Air Canada, first Airline in North America to mandate temperature testing" the real story is "temperature testing ineffective causing delays and false positives" (more on this in an upcoming blog).

Remember Air Canada used to lead a bad bunch - routinely winning North-American Airline awards.

When travel, albeit limited, starts to open up you'da thought Air Canada would want to build on this reputation; they have nothing to lose. Just because you are the dominant carrier does not mean they need to act like it.

Cheers

Cliff