AirCanada News / Jazz News / Rouge News

[Jaydee]

2 hours ago, conehead said:

I received that email. Wondering how much the cheque will be?

Well I wouldn’t run out and buy something expensive, like groceries or something elaborate to celebrate.
 

Seriously though, my guess calculations say that with any luck the after tax amount might cover the increased cost of fuel for your car for the year.

Edited November 14, 2021 by Jaydee

[conehead]

1 hour ago, Jaydee said:

Seriously though, my guess calculations say that with any luck the after tax amount might cover the increased cost of fuel for your car for the year.

Ouch.

[Guest1]

surprised that they would be draining what could  / should be an emergency fund.

[moeman]

 

Air Canada is not the Quebecois airline its critics take it to be — if the CEO’s French isn’t good enough, it might be time to move

https://www.thestar.com/business/opinion/2021/11/13/english-french-tongue-tangles-should-remind-quebecers-of-the-limits-of-quebec-inc.html

 

 

[Bobcaygeon]

10 hours ago, moeman said:

 

Air Canada is not the Quebecois airline its critics take it to be — if the CEO’s French isn’t good enough, it might be time to move

https://www.thestar.com/business/opinion/2021/11/13/english-french-tongue-tangles-should-remind-quebecers-of-the-limits-of-quebec-inc.html

 

 

The CEO of Air France/KLM speaks neither French or Dutch.....Quebec, you've repeated demonstrated your ridiculous ideas  are outdated and not valid...

BTW I'm off to YUL to harass Quebecois public servants wearing necklaces and chains with crucifix's as per Bill 21... 

[Airband]

Air Canada Exits Government of Canada Financial Support as Industry Recovery Continues

MONTREAL, Nov. 19, 2021 /CNW Telbec/ - Air Canada today announced that due to its improved liquidity position and ongoing recovery from the pandemic it is withdrawing from further Government of Canada financial support. The support package, announced in April 2021, provided the carrier access to interest bearing loans of $5.375 billion through several separate credit facilities. To date, Air Canada has only accessed the facility solely dedicated to refunding customers' non-refundable tickets, while all other remaining facilities totaling $3.975 billion have not been used.

"Air Canada's recovery from COVID-19 continues. We are recalling employees, adding new routes and frequencies to our network, and restoring services, and, last quarter, we completed a $7.1-billion financing. Today, in another convincing sign of our progress, we are announcing our withdrawal from the major funding provisions of our support agreement with the Government of Canada for the $3.975 billion in facilities that were never accessed and remain unused," said Michael Rousseau, President and Chief Executive Officer.

"We deeply appreciate the Government of Canada's support as this helped maintain a level playing field at a time when governments around the world, recognizing the importance of air travel to their economies, were also assisting their national carriers in the face of the unprecedented downturn caused by COVID-19. In addition to helping preserve thousands of jobs and travel choice for Canadians, the assistance offered to Air Canada importantly served as an extra level of insurance that enabled us to raise additional liquidity on our own to manage the pandemic and give us sufficient resources to effectively compete in the post-pandemic marketplace."

Background

Air Canada's support agreement with the government, under the Large Employer Emergency Financing Facility, provided access to up to $5.375 billion in interest bearing loans and $500 million in equity for a total of $5.875 billion in liquidity. It consisted of several elements, including:

•     A $1.5 billion secured revolving facility and three separate $825 million unsecured revolving credit facilities. None of the $3.975 billion available under these facilities was ever drawn and, under the terms of its agreement with the government, Air Canada was entitled to terminate them at any time without penalty and has done so.
•     A $1.4 billion unsecured facility solely dedicated to refunding customers' non-refundable tickets. Approximately 58 per cent of eligible customers requested refunds, including those not covered by the government facility, with the balance voluntarily retaining future flight credits with the carrier. To date, Air Canada has accessed about $1.2 billion of the facility with the money going directly to customers. The money used for refunding the non-refundable tickets will be repaid as per the terms of the agreement with interest paid quarterly by Air Canada.
• The government purchased $500 million worth of Air Canada common shares at $23.18 per share, representing about 6 per cent of the current public float, which it continues to hold.
•  Air Canada also issued to the government about 14.6 million 10-year warrants for the purchase of an equal number of Air Canada shares, at a price of approximately $27.27 per share. With the termination of the operating credit facilities, half of these warrants, which have not yet vested with the government, have been cancelled immediately. Subject to TSX approval, Air Canada intends to call the balance of the vested warrants for cancellation as per their terms at fair market value. 

In the third quarter of 2021, Air Canada completed a series of financing transactions generating gross proceeds of about $7.1 billion. These financing transactions provided substantial liquidity to Air Canada and extended debt maturities out until near the end of the decade. With the release of its third quarter results on November 2, 2021, Air Canada reported that as of September 30, 2021, its unrestricted liquidity was approximately $14.4 billion and consisted of roughly $9.5 billion in cash and cash equivalents, short-term and long-term investments, and about $4.9 billion in available undrawn credit facilities, including the $3.975 billion in unused government facilities being cancelled with today's announcement.

[Airband]

Why Air Canada CEO's English-only speech in Quebec was such a grave gaffe

The easily preventable blunder reminded Quebecers of a time when the Anglo minority ran the province’s economy

Sun Nov 21, 2021  - National Post
by André Pratte

Quote

This reminded Quebecers of the crass arrogance of 'les boss anglais' of the past

Following the controversy that arose in Québec about the English-only speech by Air Canada’s CEO in front of the Montreal Board of Trade, the reaction in the rest of Canada was mostly: “Why the fuss?” As a strong federalist who has often criticized nationalist excesses in the province, let me try to explain.

First, the historical context. Quebec’s Quiet Revolution, beginning in the early 1960s, was mostly about French-speaking Quebecers taking control of their economy, at the time controlled by companies owned and managed by the English-speaking minority, and where francophones often were required to speak English in order to understand and be understood by their bosses. This was a time when the CEO of a Crown corporation could assert that there was no French Canadian competent enough to be appointed to the C-suite of said corporation.

The Quiet Revolution changed all that. French-speaking Quebecers are now at the head of most of the province’s large firms and SMEs, including of course the powerful Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec. But there remains the concern, deeply entrenched in Quebecers’ minds, that things could revert to where they were 60 years ago. After all, the English language remains, in Québec as elsewhere in the world, a very attractive and often necessary language of business.

Second, the political context. In recent years, the Quebec media have published a tsunami of stories purported to demonstrate that French is slowly losing its majority status in the province, especially in Montreal. This has been supported by anecdotes about francophones unable to be served in their mother tongue in downtown stores, and by the observation that English signs appear to be again predominant in Montreal’s commercial landscape. The French language may one day disappear from the continent, some influential commentators warn.

Add to this the latest census data regarding the slowly diminishing share of Québécois in the province’s population, and you have a new language storm. The hurricane led the provincial government — and the federal government too! — to table legislation supposed to better protect French in Québec and in the rest of Canada.

Third, the context around Air Canada. Air Canada is a private corporation. But it is not a corporation like the others. When the company was privatized in 1985, a deal was struck: the company’s shareholders were granted the right to use the “Air Canada” brand, an extremely valuable asset, in exchange for several conditions, amongst which two are of concern here: 1) Air Canada would continue to fall under the Official Languages Act; and 2) the company’s head office would remain in Montreal. Had these conditions not been part of the Air Canada Public Participation Act, there would have been no privatization.

In comes Michael Rousseau and his English-only speech. As many have pointed out, the Official Languages Act does not require that the CEO of Air Canada be proficient in both official languages. What it does require is that the company serve its customers in the official language of their choice — this may be French on a Montreal/Toronto flight, but may also be English on a Montreal — Rouyn/Noranda flight. The Act also requires that, where numbers warrant, employees are able to work in the official language of their choice.

The issue here is: considering the status of Air Canada as an officially bilingual organization, and considering the considerable efforts that the company makes to offer its services in both languages, should not the CEO set an example by at least attempting to speak French?

Unfortunately, Rousseau worsened his predicament by agreeing to answer reporters’ questions. He explained that his schedule was so full that there was simply no time to learn French. In any case, he explained, he felt no need to speak the language: had he not successfully and comfortably lived in Montreal for 14 years without uttering one “oui” or “bonjour”? This attitude reminded Quebecers of the crass arrogance and ignorance of “les boss anglais” of the past.

It is the combination of all those factors that is at the root of the fierce controversy that erupted.

English-speaking Quebecers were as dumbfounded as their francophone friends. Since then, they have been concerned. They know that this extraordinary gaffe will have a long-lasting political impact of which they will be the main victims. Rousseau’s attitude came to confirm francophones’ worst fears relative to the decline of French in the province, especially in the business community. The pressure has increased on the provincial government to strengthen its language legislation, and this will happen to the detriment of the English-speaking minority and of all Quebecers’ fundamental rights.

This incident will be forever enshrined in Québec’s history books as one additional proof that English Canadians don’t give a hoot about the existence of French in Canada. Quebecers will conclude that they can count only on themselves — specifically on strong legislation — to preserve the French language in their province. This is not a desirable scenario. Yet it was so easily preventable.

[dagger]

On 11/15/2021 at 12:26 PM, Bobcaygeon said:

The CEO of Air France/KLM speaks neither French or Dutch.....Quebec, you've repeated demonstrated your ridiculous ideas  are outdated and not valid...

BTW I'm off to YUL to harass Quebecois public servants wearing necklaces and chains with crucifix's as per Bill 21... 

THE CEO OF Air France has improved his French enough to give interviews in that language. 

[Maverick]

20 hours ago, dagger said:

THE CEO OF Air France has improved his French enough to give interviews in that language. 

He should be working on his Arabic.

 

[deicer]

https://twitter.com/AirCanada/status/1467599662907629586

[conehead]

2 hours ago, deicer said:

https://twitter.com/AirCanada/status/1467599662907629586

That was pretty cool. I hope it went into a paint shop afterwards?

[rudder]

AC should have used the opportunity to upgrade the flight deck the same way that FedEx does on the converted B757 freighters.

[J.O.]

3 hours ago, rudder said:

AC should have used the opportunity to upgrade the flight deck the same way that FedEx does on the converted B757 freighters.

Fleet differences, simulator set-up and training costs may be a factor, especially if not all of the 767s are being converted.

[Guest1]

Air Canada Customer Reviews - SKYTRAX (airlinequality.com)

[Specs]

1 hour ago, Kargokings said:

Air Canada Customer Reviews - SKYTRAX (airlinequality.com)

Yikes - some angry people there.  Some deservedly so.

[Guest1]

17 minutes ago, Specs said:

Yikes - some angry people there.  Some deservedly so.

You should also read the westjet news thread where I posted their review from Skytrax

[Specs]

3 hours ago, Kargokings said:

You should also read the westjet news thread where I posted their review from Skytrax

I did  - I'll be the first to admit Airline customer service leaves a lot to be desired but then again people get what they pay for.  If we put more on the desks or gates or phones then the costs will go up and customers will go elsewhere - and get the same service under the same conditions. 

I looked at a few others as well.  Porter was rated 4/10.  Swoop was 3/10

Sky regional wasn't listed. 

Transat got 5/10 

Jazz was a WHOPPING 8/10.

Edited December 8, 2021 by Specs

[Specs]

2 hours ago, Specs said:

I did  - I'll be the first to admit Airline customer service leaves a lot to be desired but then again people get what they pay for.  If we put more on the desks or gates or phones then the costs will go up and customers will go elsewhere - and get the same service under the same conditions. 

I looked at a few others as well.  Porter was rated 4/10.  Swoop was 3/10

Sky regional wasn't listed. 

Transat got 5/10 

Jazz was a WHOPPING 8/10.  We should bottle that.

 

[Guest1]

3 hours ago, Specs said:

 

Just goes to show, the average passenger (er guest) expects the best and is upset when that did not happen. I can remember when a DC6 was diverted to YYD when YPR and YXT were below limits and some of those could not understand why they should be inconvenienced until the Flight Engineer said quit bluntly running into a mountain because the pilots could not see is why you are being delayed for a few hours rather then forever.  The rest of the passengers gave him a cheers. The bus trip from YYD to YPR was uneventful. 

[Guest1]

 

[deicer]

This could also go in a covid thread, however, I think this will be one of the big reasons companies will make employees return to the office.

https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/canada/air-canada-employee-who-fell-on-stairs-in-her-home-eligible-for-worker-s-compensation-judge/ar-AAS16t8?ocid=msedgntp

Air Canada employee who fell on stairs in her home eligible for worker’s compensation: Judge

[Guest1]

How Jenny Tung brings an expert’s touch to Air Canada

30 December 2021Canadian Aviation News

Story is below Air Canada’s Twitter feed.

30 December 2021

From FlightGlobal – link to source story

By Pilar Wolfsteller | 22 December 2021

Airliner lavatories clog up more often than you think. Just ask Jenny Tung, an aircraft maintenance engineer with Air Canada. She is intimately familiar with the toilets in the air and it is her responsibility to ensure they keep on flushing.

Jet lavatories – along with headphone jacks, seat-back adjustment buttons and entertainment system screens – are among the most touched, and most frequently used items aboard any commercial aircraft, she says.

Source: Air Canada

Jenny Tung’s job requires that she travel with the Air Canada jets she maintains

Tung is qualified to fix everything from loose wires and clogged toilets to leaky engines. She is a plumber, mechanic, carpenter, technician, HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) engineer, electrician and cleaner, all rolled into one.

Call her an aircraft whisperer.

“I don’t feel like I go to work every day,” says Tung. “I feel like I’m going out to play with the airplanes.”

CHANGING COURSE

The daughter of Taiwanese immigrants, Tung, 33, arrived in Canada when she was nine years old. She attended an academically-rigorous high school, where students were encouraged – and expected – to pursue university degrees.

But a year before she graduated, Tung discovered a love and a skill for repairing automobiles.

“I never knew how good I was with my hands until I started fixing cars,” she says. Just before she was ready to leave for university, she decided against it.

“My father was in the military, so he was all about discipline, and he always made me fold my blanket in a square,” Tung says. “But that summer I was very honest with myself. I knew that if I went away to university I was going to party my head off and not get very good grades.

“I decided to do trade school first, and maybe think about university later.”

She enrolled at the British Columbia Institute of Technology, where she completed a 16-month apprenticeship programme in aircraft maintenance, a course in which she was among just a handful of women.

While studying, Tung took a part-time job as a ramp agent – “tossing around 50-pound bags” and cleaning aircraft in an attempt to get her foot in the door.

“I knew I was going to have to be competitive, or employers just wouldn’t see me,” she says.

After graduating in 2008, she landed in a job and career that has taken her across the country – and has exposed her to an impressively wide range of aircraft, from business jets (“the Ferraris of airplanes”, she calls them) and commercial airliners (“big old buses”) to helicopters.

She is now at Air Canada, based in Vancouver, type-rated as a maintenance engineer for Airbus A320s and Boeing 767s, and working on the carrier’s corporate charter aircraft.

Unlike colleagues supporting Air Canada’s primary scheduled operation, Tung’s job requires that she travel with the jets she maintains. She might, for example, accompany a professional ice hockey team on an away-game trip criss-crossing North America for a week or more.

By comparison, most maintenance on Air Canada aircraft used for scheduled flights takes place while the jets are parked overnight.

“When we get to the ramp in the evening, we have a task card with specific jobs to complete,” she says. “We do everything mechanical. If a seat back doesn’t recline, we fix it. If an engine doesn’t start, we repair the problem. If a lavatory needs to be unclogged, we do that too. So we have to know the aircraft very well.”

Source: Air Canada

Tung’s responsibilities include performing maintenance on “everything mechanical”

Tung credits numerous mentors with helping set her up for success – people who went out of their way to treat her as a peer in a segment of the aviation industry that is still more than 97% male.

“A lot of people in maintenance will treat you differently just because of you being female,” she says. “My mentors never did that. They always gave me the same opportunities.

“I always joke with the guys that my purse is usually heavier than that toolbox,” she says.

But the journey has not been all fun and joshing. When economic hardship comes, it often affects the aviation industry first – and its workers.

“I got laid off eight times so far. That’s kind of just part of aviation,” Tung says. “The economy has fluctuated a lot. But I’m still here. I’m still doing this.”

Every time one door closed, every time crisis struck one part of the industry, Tung found new opportunities, and kept on learning.

JOB SATISFACTION

But what is the best part about working on big jets? For Tung, it is watching an engine come back to life following repairs.

“After certain checks, we have to do an engine run to make sure that it’s not leaking or malfunctioning. It’s very rewarding because you can see you did everything right, everything works and the engine performs the way it’s supposed to.”

On a recent night shift, Tung helped secure a repaired engine to the wing of a 787.

“In the morning, my parents took off to go back to Taiwan on that same aircraft,” she says. “Who can say that in their job they put the engine on the airplane that their parents flew across the Pacific? That’s a tremendous amount of responsibility and honour.

“I know the impact I have makes a huge difference,” she adds.

Which brings Tung back to the clogged toilet. So how do technicians clear the pipes?

“We have what’s called a lavatory snake. So we activate that toilet, and it creates a vacuum. We use the suction of one lavatory to unclog the other,” she says.

“It’s interesting and pretty disgusting. But it’s important too.”

[Guest1]

1930s Connector: The Story Of Trans-Canada Air Lines

• byJake Hardiman
• January 10, 2022
• 3 minute read
• 1930s Connector: The Story Of Trans-Canada Air Lines - Simple Flying

[Guest1]

Canada’s Jazz Air ends Dash 8-300 operations

12 January 2022Canadian Aviation News

From ch-aviation – link to source story

Jazz Air (Air Canada Express) De Havilland Canada © Air Canada

10 January 2022

Jazz Air (QK, Halifax) retired all of its remaining DHC-8-300s on January 9, 2022.

The regional carrier has six of the type in service on their last day of operations. Its fleet of DHC-8-300s numbered twenty-eight between 2008 and 2017 and has since been gradually downsized, the ch-aviation fleets history module shows. Jazz Air’s parent, Chorus Aviation, owned all of them. The retirement of the type was delayed by a few days compared to the end-2021 timeline announced in Jazz Air’s revised Capacity Purchase Agreement (CPA) with Air Canada (AC, Montréal Trudeau) in March 2021.

Jazz Air was the last major operator of the DHC-8-300. No other carrier in the world operates more than five although Eastern Australia Airlines (EAQ, Tamworth) and Air New Zealand (NZ, Auckland Int’l) operate double-digit numbers (23 and 15, respectively) of the DHC-8-Q300 variant, which Jazz Air did not.

Following the retirement of the DHC-8-300s, Jazz Air’s turboprop fleet comprises thirty-nine DHC-8-Q400s. The airline retired all of its DHC-8-100s (of which it once operated 64) as of April 2020, earlier than planned due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The carrier also operates a fleet of regional jets comprising fifteen CRJ200s, thirty-five CRJ900s, and twenty-five E175s all of which fly for Air Canada as its regional capacity provider, although it has no ownership ties to the flag carrier.

[Guest1]

WestJet, Air Canada cancel flights as Omicron takes toll on sector

MONTREAL — Canada's two biggest airlines are cutting thousands of flights as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to surge.

 

News about WestJet has already been posted but here is what the article has about AirCanada>

Quote

While Air Canada has not announced major flight consolidations, it has cancelled 15 per cent of its flights in March and 11 per cent in February — 6,805 flights in total — within the last two weeks alone, according to figures from airline data company Cirium.

"We continue to monitor and adjust our schedule in response to government regulations and other factors, as we have done since the pandemic began. However we have no update on schedule changes that we previously enacted," Air Canada spokesman Peter Fitzpatrick said in an email.

The company said in a flight advisory earlier this month it was suspending flights to at least 14 Caribbean destinations "in light of the current pandemic context," effective Jan. 24 through April 30.