Air Canada is to merge three regional subsidiaries, Air Nova, Air Ontario and AirBC, as one of the first moves in the restructuring of domestic operations after the Canadian Airlines takeover. Joseph Randell, president and chief executive of AirNova and interim president of Air Ontario and AirBC, is to be president of the merged carrier.
"Consolidation is clearly the best strategy for the future of Air Canada's regional airlines," says the flag carrier's president and chief executive Rob Milton. Air Nova and Air Alliance, which served the Atlantic provinces and Quebec, were combined under the former's name through a merger last March.
Air Canada says that should it fail to sell Canadian Regional Airlines - a move ordered by competition chiefs following the Canadian takeover - then that, too, will be folded into the new regional.
Air Canada has also begun to rationalise its mainline route network, dropping 14 of Canadian's routes, including Toronto-Boston, Calgary-Houston and Calgary-Halifax. Spare capacity will be employed elsewhere, including Montreal-Edmonton, Vancouver-Halifax and Toronto-Victoria routes. Air Canada is also planning daily flights from Toronto to Tokyo, Hong Kong and Mexico, as well as Vancouver-Shanghai and from Montreal-Milan/Rome.
Canadian is reported to have suffered a 14% drop in traffic in December and a loss of C$100 million ($69 million) since November. The carrier, which continues to operate separately, has begun talks with creditors to restructure multi-billion dollar debts.
Source: Flight International
