Air Canada laying off 20,000 staff
 

Today's news item about Air Canada:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/air...offs-1.5572596

The Canadian government has committed many billion dollars payroll compensation to entice companies to retain their staff, I guess Air Canada can't make it work in the near term...

I read that, worldwide, commercial aviation is currently losing over $18 Billion a month!:eek:
In the immediate aftermath of 9/11, the industry lost more money than it had made since the advent of commercial aviation.
In spite of how incredibly successful and profitable the industry has been the last 10 years or so, it appears history is repeating itself...

Many friends at AC. Sad to hear this. This is going to far exceed 9/11 in regards to job losses.

Must be way north of that. DL stated that they are losing $1.5Bn/month alone. They are big, but not 8% of global commercial aviation

Sad news for Air Canada employees. I still know many pilots there.

PM Trudeau announced he will “work with airlines” - could be a veiled threat by AC so that Trudeau gives a bailout so that AC can buy more time. AC also needs an overhaul - same time Calvin R cashed out $57 million last year and now crying - good opportunity to also do a transformation

sad times for Pilots and crew though - let’s see what the unions come up with....

You may be right - thinking back that $18 Billion might have been per week, not per month. I tried to find the article to confirm but was unsuccessful :(

From a Forbes article last month, IATA trying to get government bailouts:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/marisag.../#3df423ea1447

that’s a little outdated ... we are hitting $314 billion now and simply Juniec still trying to complain. Things are bad / what else to say?

https://samchui.com/2020/05/14/lates.../#.XsDQcPcifDs

You are right, in seven weeks the IATA projected loss has gone from $252 Billion to $314 Billion. :eek:

I think the Air Canada CEO is operating on the principal of “don’t waste the opportunity a crisis presents”. He is looking to permanently shrink the cost base of the airline both in terms of an optimized fleet mix and structural reductions in the employee cost base.

This is also a shot across the bow of the Prime Minister. The government is shoveling money out the door and he obviously wants some

The really interesting thing for me is of pretty much all of the major airlines, Air Canada has the most pessimistic models for the resumption of air travel and this is the driver for early and drastic action to dramatically shrink the airline immediately.

Sadly I think he is going to be seen as prescient.....

I would also guess that Westjet will abandon its overseas aspirations and dispose of its two 787-9’s.

If the airline wishes to survive long-term does he have any other option?. I dont think anyone is thinking that flying is now going to bounce rapidly back to 2019 levels, it is going to take many years if ever.

Hope not as I've used the YYZ-LGW service a few times and it's very good. Still selling flights which might prove to be a bit naughty.

Two? The 6th is about to be delivered from Charleston and with load factors pre-covid of 95% plus I’d say the early demise is premature.

Six fins already - I hadn’t realized WJ had ramped up that quickly. As you know, WJ’s transition to a full-service overseas carrier was considered by some financial analysts to be quite risky even in the strong market that existed pre-Covid. Post-Covid, an expensive relaunch into a market full of overcapacity........it will all hinge on Onex’s appetite to acquire and sustain a high cost capital asset in in what will be a low yield environment for some time to come.

To be sure, crappy times for all.

so is AC just threatening as a bargaining chip with the Feds to get some extra cash? I mean they just announced almost 100 summer destinations - so no culling yet?