Air Canada Research Articles

Long-term agreement with Air Canada

Long-term agreement with Air Canada

A Simulation-Enabled Dss For Allocating Check-In Agents

A decision support system (DSS) is developed from a descriptive resource simulation of Air Canada’s passenger check-in process previously created in 2001 with Arena 3.0. Through time study and analysis, the impacts of 9-11 on customer arrival and service times are reflected in the updated model. The integration of a Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) front-end enables Air Canada management staff to easily enter and manipulate flight and staff schedules. What-if analysis can now be performed to Understand the significance of different situations and changes Air Canada may encounter daily. A key output of the DSS is a feasible staff roster to meet the airline’s internal service standards by more closely matching customer arrival patterns.

The Canadian air transport industry: In crisis or in transition?

The air transport industry is currently experiencing one of the most difficult periods in its history. According to the International Air Transport Association (IATA), the global airline industry lost more than US$10bn in 2001. In Europe, well-established carriers such as Sabena and Swissair have had to declare bankruptcy after decades of existence. In Canada, the dominant carrier, Air Canada, declared a record loss of C$1.25bn in 2001. It is tempting to attribute all these problems to the economic slowdown that began in early 2001 and was exacerbated by the tragic events of 11th September, 2001. After all, global air traffic dropped approximately 4 per cent in 2001. However, low-fare carriers are still earning profits and growing at a rate that is the envy of traditional scheduled carriers. In short, one question arises: are the industry’s current problems the result of a temporary economic downturn, or are they the outcome of a major transformation that began several years ago? This is the question addressed in this paper by examining recent changes in the Canadian air transport industry.

Jettisoned by Design? The Truncated Employment Relationship of Customer Sales and Service Agents under Airline Restructuring

Numerical flexibility strategies are increasingly being adopted by employers in their quest to remain competitive and prosper under current economic conditions. Despite a flourishing interest in labour distancing strategies, there nevertheless remains a dearth of in-depth information on, and understanding of, these strategies and their implications for white-collar workers and for the chang- ing nature and conditions of women's white-collar work in post-industrial society. Through a study of the contracting out of Air Canada customer sales and service agents' work under airline industry restructuring, this article examines employment relationship degradation and highlights how computer and telecommunications technologies are used to spatially reorganize work. It also gives a detailed account of workers' resistance to the truncation of the employment relationship. In de- veloping an analysis of the degradation of women's sales and service white-collar employment, the article provides important insights into the larger process of growing inequality and polarization in industrialized societies, an issue that has been a long-standing concern of sociologists.

Employment Practices and the Gendering of Air Canada's Culture during its Trans Canada Airlines Days

From the earliest days women have had active roles in the commercial aviation industry. Yet most airlines' employment practices have led to narrow definitions of what constituted women's work. This study, as a part of a broader study on employment practices and the gendering of organizational culture, mirrors a similar study of British Airways by Mills (1994) and takes a rules approach, within a sensemaking framework (Helms Mills and Mills, 2000), to analyze the data. In this case, the first three 'junctures' in the history of Air Canada/TCA will be explored to show how women's work was understood and how women were represented during each of these periods. The use of corporate documents will support the notion that women were mostly thought of and portrayed as idealised, sexualised objects, which were considered dispensable. This narrow definition of women's roles has not only diminished the opportunities for career advancement but it has also minimized the importance of the work women in the airline industry have done.

Financial Theories in Practice: The Surprising Case of the Air Canada, Canadian Airlines, Onex Affair

In 1999, an intriguing series of events occurred that dramatically reshaped the Canadian airline industry. This clinical study considers these events in relation to several theoretical issues in finance to explore whether these well-accepted financial theories apply in reality. Are companies run to benefit shareholders? Is the maximization of shareholder value a key construct for publicly-traded companies? Can the market discipline the management of poorly performing companies? Do institutional shareholders aid in corporate governance by instigating corporate changes? The results of this study suggest that agency costs are real and that the goals of management are in conflict with and will often supercede those of shareholders, that, in practice, corporate governance can be severely limited even when the vast majority of board members are unrelated to the company, and that institutional shareholders may not be the disciplining force that theory suggests. Overall, the results of the study imply that managerial entrenchment is a powerful motivating force that may be impossible to counter even for a large, poorly performing corporation that is subject to a very attractive takeover offer.

Key aspects of global strategic alliances and the impacts on the future of Canadian airline industry

This paper summarizes main research results concerning global airline alliances and investigates the potential roles of Air Canada and other Canadian air carriers in the increasingly powerful global alliance networks. After describing the history, status and prospect of global alliance networks, the paper discusses the effects of alliances on productivity, pricing and profitability of partner carriers. It then discusses the effects of alliances on partners’ output, service frequency and consumer welfare, and the effects of global alliance networks on inter-continental traffic routing patterns as well as on traffic routing patterns in North America. Applying alliance research results, we investigate the roles of Air Canada and other Canadian carriers in North America and in global alliance networks. Finally, regulatory issues concerning international alliances are discussed.

An empirical analysis of Canadian international air policy: effects of dual carrier designation and partial liberalization

This paper assesses the impact on air traffic of Canada's policy of allowing two Canadian flag carriers (dual-designation) to operate in select Canadian international markets. The secondary objective is to assess the effect of Canada's partially liberalized bilateral air services agreements. Using panel data covering Canada's 33 bilateral markets over the 1982–1994 period, we find the following results: (a) dual designation/operation of Canadian carriers in a country-pair market increases total traffic volumes in the market as well as increases the combined passenger volume and market share of Canadian carriers, and (b) Canada's partially liberalized bilateral air services agreements have significantly increased air traffic in those country-pair markets.Two policy implications follow from this research. First, Air Canada's recent merger with Canadian Airlines is expected to have a significant negative impact on total traffic volumes as well as on Canadian carrier traffic volumes and market shares on the country-pair markets both Air Canada and Canadian served previously. Second, not only the US style full liberal bilaterals or open skies, but also partial liberalization of bilateral markets Canada adopted appears to generate consumer welfare benefits.

Restitution of Unlawfully Levied Taxes: Survey and Comparative Analysis of Developments in Canada, Australia, and England

The common law traditionally has not been sympathetic to taxpayers wishing to recover unlawfully levied taxes from public authorities. Because a mistake of law did not, as a general rule and in itself, give rise to a right to restitution, and because courts refused to find that the mere fact that monies had been demanded by public authorities amounted to compulsion, taxpayers were often left without a remedy. Fortunately, important judicial developments have occurred in Canada, Australia, and England in the past decade. The demise of the infamous mistake of law rule and the recognition in England of the Woolwich principle have facilitated the recovery of unlawfully levied taxes. Yet, these developments have revealed profound differences as to which defences should be made available to public authorities. The "fiscal chaos" and "passing on" defences proposed by three Justices of the Supreme Court of Canada in the Air Canada case have not been well received in Australia and England. This article traces the evolution of the traditional common law approach to the problem of unlawfully levied taxes, offers a survey of the judicial developments in this area since the past decade and proposes a comparative analysis of the approaches adopted in each jurisdiction.

The Preferential Bidding System at Air Canada

This paper describes the Preferential Bidding Problem solved in the airline industry to construct personalized monthly schedules for pilots and officers. This problem consists in assigning to crew members pairings, days off, annual leaves, training periods, etc., while considering a set of weighted bids that reflect individual preferences. This assignment must be done under strict seniority restrictions: the construction of a maximum-score schedule for a particular crew member must never be done at the expense of a more senior employee. This research and development project has resulted in the Preferential Bidding System that has been used at Air Canada since May 1995. The solution process is summarized as follows. For each employee, from the most senior to the most junior, a so-called residual problem is solved: given an employee and a set of unassigned pairings, the solution to an integer linear program determines the employee's maximum-score schedule while taking into account all the remaining employees. The residual problem is solved by column generation embedded in a branch-and-bound tree. Integer solutions are obtained by using very efficient cutting planes, without which it would have been impossible to solve some of these residual problems.

Air canada vs. canadi>n: competition and merger in the framing of airline culture*

This paper is concerned with airlines, metaphors and organizational cultures. Specifically the paper seeks to answer the question, ‘why, when so many political and economic commentators are agreed that Canada has only room for one viable airline, has it proven impossible to merge the country's two main commercial airlines?’ To answer the question we draw upon Jenkin's (1994) critical historiographic approach, focusing on the development of the organizational cultures and associated discourses of each airline over time. In the process the paper traces the metaphorical use of the concept of competition in the development of the commercial airline business in Canada. We conclude that the culture of an organization may not, of itself, be enough to explain certain organizational outcomes (e.g., a failure to form a merger or alliance) - particularly organizations that are, in large part, dependent on broad policy concerns, but that broader social discourses (e.g., government policy), mediated by specific organizational cultures, may be the major influence.

Canadian carrier strategies and the 1995 open skies agreement

The Canada-US Open Skies agreement of 1995 fundamentally changed the transborder market in air services, liberalizing the conduct of air transport in the world's largest trading relationship. Using the Putnam two-level game model, this paper traces the development of the agreement through the failed 1991–1992 bilateral negotiation to the Elliot-Kaplan ‘Framework’ talks of 1995 which led to the breakthrough agreement. The paper focuses on how the changing strategies of Canadian Airlines International and Air Canada helped make the agreement possible. These strategies were affected by the resolution of the Gemini computer reservation system dispute, globalization, and technological change following the introduction of the Canadair Regional Jet. The paper then discusses how the rival airlines have adapted to the changing environment, including the significance of charter conversions, code-sharing and intransit preclearance.

The Print Media's Shaping of the Security Discourse: Cruise Missile Testing, SDI, and NORAD

During the 1980s, two government defence policy decisions were subjects of controversy for the Canadian public. The first was the decision of Pierre Trudeau's Liberal government in July 1983 to allow the United States to test its air-launched cruise missile in Canada's north. The second was the decision of the Progressive Conservative government of Brian Mulroney in September 1985 not to participate in the United States Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) on a government-to-government basis. Both decisions were related to the aerospace defence of the continent and made the renewal of the North American Aerospace Defence Agreement (NORAD) in 1986 also controversial. Opinion polls demonstrated the extent of public disagreement over the issues. According to a Gallup poll in August 1983, 48 per cent of Canadians opposed cruise testing, 44 per cent supported it, and 8 per cent were undecided.(f.1) In May 1985, Gallup identified 53 per cent in favour of Canadian participation in SDI research, 40 per cent opposed, and 7 per cent undecided. The opposition was reflected in mass public demonstrations across the country. The numbers taking part in Vancouver's annual Walk for Peace, for example, swelled from 1,500 in 1980 to 30,000 in 1982 and 60,000 in 1985.(f.2) By 1983, 500 peace movement groups nation-wide were working against testing cruise missiles.(f.3) In the autumn of that year, a coalition of 26 peace movement and trade union organizations challenged the Trudeau government's decision in the Supreme Court under Canada's Charter of Rights and Freedoms. In 1985, when participation in SDI was also an issue, the Canadian Peace Alliance was formed to co-ordinate activities nation-wide. By May 1983, Trudeau had received 6,570 letters about the cruise issue, of which only 119 supported testing. Similarly, by June 1985, Mulroney had received 5,000 letters about Canada's relationship to s SDI, of which only 6 supported participation.(f.4) This extended period of intense public interest in defence policy-making echoed the years between 1959 and 1963 when Canadians debated the appropriateness of a nuclear weapons role for Canada's air defence forces. Major analysts of Canadian defence policy-making tend to characterize these periods of large-scale organized dissent as 'copycat' phenomena(f.5) or as expressions of 'a latent anti-Americanism and of a self-image of moral rectitude.'(f.6) The nature of public disagreement, however, suggests another reading. At the core of each period were defence programmes which, by actively involving Canadians in Canada in the military relations of the United States and the Soviet Union, demonstrated consent for those relations. That consent, together with a questioning of appropriate roles for Canada in the East-West relations of the Cold War, informed dissent. Thus, public dissent was distinctly Canadian and consistently expressed when challenged. Between 1963 and the early 1980s, no defence programme of a comparable nature was undertaken by Canadian governments. The issues of the 1980s were subjects of high-profile media attention. A comparison of the content of newspaper coverage with information contained in the archives of the Departments of National Defence and External Affairs reveals that the Canadian print media mounted a well-informed debate about the issues -- a debate relatively unconstrained by the kinds of closure which major theoretical perspectives predict for issues of national security. In so doing, the media contributed to the shaping of the public discourse on these issues, as they also reflected it. After exploring the linkages between cruise missile testing, SDI, and the NORAD agreement, this article will review major theoretical understandings of the limitations placed on the media's reportage of security issues. A qualitative and quantitative analysis of the coverage of these issues in seven Canadian newspapers will follow, and the article will conclude with some reflections on the relationship between public interest in security issues and government decision-making. …

50 to 100 Ah lithium-ion cells for aircraft and spacecraft applications

Battery weight is a continuing concern for the designers of power systems for aircraft and spacecraft. An obvious approach to lighter weight energy storage for these applications is to scale-up the lithium-ion battery technology presently being introduced into consumer portable electronics to meet the needs of larger power systems operating in severe environments. BlueStar is presently pursuing the development of 50 to 100 Ah cells for this application with funding from the US Air Force and Canada's Department of National Defence. Several 20 Ah cells have been built and preliminary testing is underway. The structure of the programme, test results with small cells and the design of the 20 Ah cell are described herein.

Effects of merger and foreign alliance: An event study of the Canadian airline industry

Abstract This paper uses an event study methodology to investigate how investors have reacted to new information (events) affecting merger/foreign alliance possibilities in the Canadian airline industry for the 1992–1993 period. We find that news regarding the merger/foreign alliance possibilities had a significant impact on the stock prices of Air Canada and Canadian Airlines International (CAI). Furthermore, shareholders of both airlines preferred an alliance between CAI and American Airlines to a merger between the two domestic carriers. However, the preference does not necessarily suggest an industrial structure based interpretation, with investors expecting greater profits under a duopoly with foreign alliance partners than under a likely domestic monopoly.

A Framework for Evaluating the Government Contracting-Out Decision with an Application to Information Technology

How can government do a better job at contracting out? Steven Globerman and Aidan Vining argue that contracting out is justified only when one can expect to lower the sum of production costs and the costs of managing the relationship [between government and the contractee (transaction costs). While contracting out can usually reduce production costs, its value depends on whether it can reduce combined transaction costs and production costs. However, most transaction costs can be anticipated before contracting out. The article provides a logical taxonomy that lays out the main issues which determine the feasibility and likely success of contracting out. The key issues in assessing contract design are task complexity, contestability and asset specificity. Potential strategies are available to modify each of these determinants. The authors offer some illustrations from information technology. Contracting out has been recommended as a way to reduce governmental costs (Saves, 1982; Butler, 1985; Osborne and Gaebler, 1992), although the recommendation has its critics (e.g., Sullivan, 1987).(1) There are certainly contracting-out horror stories in which governments appear to have been victimized by opportunistic or incompetent contractees. High-profile examples can be found in information technology (IT) contracting out. One such recent example involves the federal government of Canada's contract with Hughes Aircraft of Canada to modernize Canada's air traffic control system. The project ran years late and hundreds of millions of dollars in excess of original cost estimates with original technical specifications still failing to be met. Although complex contracting out will always present significant risks to a government purchaser, the thesis of this article is that such risks can be effectively mitigated by identifying the precise nature of the risks and implementing appropriate strategies to cope with them. Information Technology is a good test of the viability of effective contracting-out mechanisms, because it often involves a highly complex transacting environment. It is also worthy of analysis in itself given the growth of IT expenditures in the public sector. However, all of the important issues in contracting out are also generic to simpler activities such as office cleaning or food preparation. Therefore, the prescriptions presented here should be useful to all public sector managers engaged in contracting out. Contracting out is now fairly common at the state and local government levels (Touche Ross, 1987, 1989). However, for contracting out to save societal resources, several issues must be confronted. First, the objective of governmental contracting out must be clean Second, an appropriate framework must be developed. Third, it must be shown that such a framework can be applied to real contracting-out problems. The objective of the public sector should be to minimize the costs of delivering any given quantity and quality of service(s).(2) Costs, in turn, consist of resource expenditures for inputs (production costs) and the costs associated with governing the production process. The evidence suggests that contracting out has a potential for lowering the first set of costs (to be discussed below), but these savings might be more than offset by increases in governance costs.(3) Our major purpose of this article is to suggest a framework to address two fundamental issues: How can government assess before the event, or ex ante, the potential governance costs that arise with contracting out? How, and under what circumstances, can governance costs be reduced? The framework proposed does not provide a detailed recipe for mitigating all governance costs. However, it does identify alternative instruments that are more or less effective depending upon the relevant circumstances, and it provides a basis for meaningfully categorizing them (Figure 1).(4) [Figure 1 ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The framework is illustrated with reference to contracting for IT services, that is, any service relating to the design, development, implementation, operation, and maintenance of information technology systems, including service bureau services and facilities management. …

From TCA to Air Canada: The Political Patterns of a Future Prime Minister

On March 3, 1964, in its first legislative act since opening of session, Canada's House of Commons gave unanimous approval to private member's bill that proposed to change name of Trans-Canada Lines (TCA), government-owned airline, to Air (1) TCA had been formed by another act of Parliament in 1937 as subsidiary of Canadian National Railways. Its inaugural routes were flown with just pair of planes. From that pioneering era until change in corporate name, company had been known in English as Trans-Canada. In French, it was Les lignes aeriennes Trans-Canada, moniker that one author admitted made unwieldy mouthful.... (2) Newspapers of day portrayed switch to Air as an unexpected development and a surprise move. (3) Whether anticipated or not, though, proposal flew through Commons in 40 minutes with all-party support. thus escaped the remorseless slaughter of private members' motions and public bills in House debate and, instead, became one of rare exceptions to be enacted into Canadian law. (4) An Interesting Example On surface, TCA bill represented little that was novel: almost identical legislation had appeared on Order Paper not once but twice before, during each of previous two sessions of Parliament. In interim, French-speaking members from several parties had argued repeatedly in favor of incorporating name for national air carrier that was intelligible in their language; successive ministers of transport were nagged in Question Periods to make change. Moreover, airline itself had already begun using designation Air unofficially in advertising to Francophone communities, as well as in some of its international operations. (5) In many respects, bill merely hastened realization of what was probably inevitable, if somewhat delayed. More noteworthy for discussion of contemporary politics and policy in Canada is that member who moved second reading of this measure was Liberal backbencher from Quebec who, at thirty years of age, had spent less than eleven months in House. It was interesting example of what effect lone MP can have..., he later reflected on action. (6) His name, by way, was Jean Chretien. (7) After more than three decades, he has advanced to engage greater challenges, including leadership of Liberal party and of Canada. A Lifetime of Lessons As young M.P., Chretien tutored himself in arcane conduct of private members' business, what probably most prominent contemporary student of Parliament's procedures has labelled essentially relic from bygone days at Westminster. (8) In process, neophyte learned how to do basic work of lawmaking. He discovered value of selecting issues to which public accorded some symbolic weight. He learned how to navigate toward popular position through wash of potential controversy. He saw how to use partisan program to shape opinion in his own caucus while his appealing personality sealed friendships that extended across party lines. He appreciated how practical reasoning can defuse opposition. He learned importance of championing good cause, but he did not forget how to count votes. This paper is less contribution to history of aviation in Canada than it is attempt to chronicle early stage in political education of future prime minister. In course of changing name of TCA to Canada, Jean Chretien gathered lifetime of lessons in science and art of federal politics. Much of pattern that editorial commentators today identify as Chretien's unique public and personal style can be traced at least as far into past as this initial legislative success. Its effects, one could maintain, have been lasting. After all, Jean Chretien is simply too perceptive politician not to understand what motivates his success, or to doubt that nothing succeeds quite like it. …

Mirroring Canadian Industrial Policy: Strategy Formation at Dominion Textile from 1873 to 1990

AbstractThis paper tracks the strategies of a “quintessentially Canadian company,” Dominion Textile Inc., through most of its history, from 1873 to 1990.Created entrepreneur‐ially, but soon consolidated politically, it became the dominant player in an important industry in Canada, faltering bureaucratically before it renewed itself competitively. As discussed in the conclusions, the company mirrored Canadian industrial policy remarkably closely throughout its life, through the states of “getting there” politically, “staying there” positionally, and “keeping there” competitively. Overall, it was remarkably deliberate in its strategic behaviour, yet that deliberateness exhibited emergent consequences, much as a Slinky toy placed on a top step walks its way down the stairs.RésuméCet article trace les stratégies de Dominion Textile Inc., une entreprise qui représente la quintessence de l'industrie canadienne, tout au long de la plus grande partie de son histoire (1873–1990). Créée sur le mode de l'esprit d'entreprise mais bientǒt consolidée sur un mode politique, elle est devenue l'acteur dominant d'un secteur industriel important au Canada, puis a failli s'effondrer sur un mode bureaucratique avant de se renouveler sur un mode compétitif. Comme lïndique la conclusion, pendant toute son histoire cette entreprise a reflété de très près la politique industrielle canadienne à travers les différentes phases qu'elle a connues: y arriver politiquement, y rester stratégiquement, s'y maintenir compétitivement. Dans l'ensemble, son comportement stratégique a été remarquablement délibéré. Toutefois, ce caractère délibéré a pu générer des conséquences émergents, comme un jouet Slinky qui, posé sur la plus haute marche, descend l'escalier tout seul.

Cohort Study of Air Canada Pilots: Mortality, Cancer Incidence, and Leukemia Risk

Despite the special working environment and exposures of airline pilots, data on risk of death and cancer incidence in this occupational group are limited. The authors investigated a cohort of 2,740 Air Canada pilots who contributed 62,449 person-years of observation. All male pilots employed for at least 1 year on and since January 1, 1950, were studied. The cutoff date for outcome information was December 31, 1992. Standardized mortality ratio (SMR) and standardized incidence ratio (SIR) were used to compare mortality rates and cancer incidence rates of the cohort with the respective Canadian population rates. Ninety percent confidence intervals of the SMR and SIR were calculated. Statistically significant decreased mortality was observed for all causes (SMR = 0.63, 90% confidence interval (CI) 0.56-0.70), for all cancers (SMR = 0.61, 90% CI 0.48-0.76), and for all noncancer diseases (SMR = 0.53, 90% CI 0.45-0.62). Mortality from aircraft accidents was significantly raised (SMR = 26.57, 90% CI 19.3-35.9). Significantly decreased cancer incidence was observed for all cancers (SIR = 0.71, 90% CI 0.61-0.82), rectal cancer (SIR = 0.42, 90% CI 0.14-0.96), lung cancer (SIR = 0.28, 90% CI 0.16-0.46), and bladder cancer (SIR = 0.36, 90% CI 0.12-0.82). Prostate cancer (SIR = 1.87, 90% CI 1.38-2.49) and acute myeloid leukemia (SIR = 4.72, 90% CI 2.05-9.31) were significantly increased. The preferred relative risk model for radiation-induced nonchronic lymphoid leukemia (Beir V report) was applied to the cohort by using published estimates of in-flight radiation exposures. The estimated relative risk ranged from 1.001 to 1.06 and did not differ significantly from the observed SIR (SIR = 1.88, 90% CI 0.80-3.53). However, the incidence rate of acute myeloid leukemia was significantly increased. Monitoring of in-flight radiation exposure and long-term follow-up of civil aviation crew members is needed to further assess cancer incidence and leukemia risk in this special occupational group.

Measurement of Neutron Radiation Exposure of Commercial Airline Pilots Using Bubble Detectors

Neutron bubble detectors have been used over a 1-yr period by commercial airline pilots from Air Canada and Air France to measure the high-altitude neutron radiation exposure produced by galactic c...