A NEW AIR CANADA TAKING FLIGHT?

May 08, 2009

You wake up on the west coast on a holiday (yeah, every day is a holiday for a travel editor I heard someone say) and you check up on goings-on back home and see that the CEO of Air Canada is going all soft.

And you think, "IT'S ABOUT TIME, DUDE!"

I never met former AC head Montie Brewer. But I intensely disliked his nickel-and-dime-and-dollar-and-twenty-dollar people-to-death approach. Three bucks for a bag of cashews? What high-ranking business person with an ounce of brains ever figured that was going to go over well with the public? Maybe they'd make a bit more short-term money, but it would only cause people to re-think Air Canada and head to a check-in booth with the words "West Jet" written on top. Or Porter. Or anything but Air Canada.

(Not that West Jet doesn't have issues. We noted the other day that they now say it might take them six or seven months to bring in their oft-delayed loyalty program, and how it can take so long is absolutely beyond my comprehension.)

Anyway, the point is that new Air Canada top flyer Calin Rovinescu is being quoted as saying he wants to look at such things as free pillows, a return to pet-friendly skies and, bestill my beating golf heart, possibly allowing oversized bags of sports equipment as a third check-in item without extra cost.

They also could improve baggage handling (hopefully at Pearson, thank you), give out more Aeroplan points (excellent, but first let's be sure there are more flights available?) and beef up service to Montreal and Ottawa in response to Porter Air's success.

All in all, excellent news for Canadian air travellers - if Rovinescu follows through.

Posted by Jim Byers at 11:33:31 AM in airlines, canada, Current Affairs, golf, ontario, tourism, Travel

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And let's not forget about seatback entertainment! That's my personal saving grace on long haul flights on Air Canada. I hope they don't take that away in lieu of all these returned freebies.

Posted by: Stephanie | May 12, 2009 at 12:45 PM

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Travel Blog by Jim Byers

Jim Byers is the Star's Travel Editor. He has been writing travel stories for more than a decade, covered five Olympic Games and spent years covering the Blue Jays, the Toronto Raptors and the PGA Tour. He's been everywhere from Bonavista to Vancouver Island, as well as China, Hong Kong, Australia, the Caribbean, Thailand, Mexico, Tahiti, New Zealand, Vietnam, a dozen countries in Europe and just about every major city in the U.S. Okay, he was only in Liechtenstein for a couple hours in a rental car and his only visit to New Orleans was when he was 12, but you get the picture.

May 08, 2009