Air Canada, Canada’s largest airline and flag carrier, plans to cut off capacity by 7% (2% of Canadian domestic flights and 13% of US trans-border flights). The airline is also going to lay off up to 2000 employees later this year. Rising fuel costs have been attributed as the main reason for the decision.
Jazz Air (Air Canada Jazz), Canadian regional airline operating feeder and commuter services for Air Canada, is also supposed to get affected with the announcement with up to 5% capacity reduction. Though, one airline analyst “doesn’t believe Air Canada can legally reduce the amount of hours
contracted with Jazz under a capacity purchase agreement that runs
until 2015.” (from Canadian Press Article).
As a result of the announcement, Air Canada is supposed to park and retire the older wide body fleet of Boeing 767-200s and Airbus A330s to give way for Boeing 787s (to be received in 2012 with the current delay).
From Reuters UK -
“Air Canada’s 274-seat A330s entered the fleet in 1999. It
has eight of them. The carrier has already said it will park
four older Boeing 767-200s while it rejuvenates its fleet.
The airline last month said it may receive its first 787 in
2012 instead of 2010, complicating its fleet planning. It will
push for compensation for the delay from Boeing.”
Thanks for the info. We only hear about daily increase of taxes this time. we´ll have to wait where it leads to.