arcteryxbird

Just wanted to give some inside info / possibly gossip , not confirmed. The word here at Pearson is that Labour Minister Lisa Raitt ( the one responsible for the back to work legislation ) was arriving on a flight here and was jeered by several AC employees. She then filed a complaint causing said employees to be fired and or suspended. Word spread and workers rallied in support of those employees.
Pearson is a zoo right now! Haven't seen this many police in one spot since G 20
Like I said this is possibly gossip , I DO NOT work for the airlines
I work for a company contracted by the GTAA
Merely a witness to the chaos here at Pearson

Christien

This is half the reason we avoid Pearson like the plague. Every flight except 2 I've taken in the last 10 years has been from buffalo.

Aren't Tories all about LESS government in people's lives?

Torontoworker

Flying KLM at the end of April - specifically avoided Air Lisa for many reasons.

Gotta laugh at her getting her assistant to call the police because she felt 'threatened' by her own airline staff 'clapping' and shouting, 'great job' to her when they recognized her. (What a power tripping taxpayer paid dipwad.) Terrorists she shouts! Maybe if she would just drive from Milton to Ottawa next time she might get there quicker and still have her baggage! The whole bunch of them, Lisa included, deserve each other.

They won't open up our skies to new investment as this might drive down Air Lisa's stock prices and the rest of the Cabinet's personal stock holdings in Air Lisa. They screw over anyone in Air Lisa's way, including Emirates Air and other airlines. Oh but we want a sweetheart deal to fly into your country and wonder why they get the door slammed in their faces and the Army loses a valuable base because of this? Just to protect the CEO and his good buddy Lisa?


Canada used to have a great airline history but with the exception of West Jet - we're a laughing stock in the industry now.

Wait for the chickens to come home to roost soon with the heavy maintenance including engine servicing now being off-shored to China at the expense of 2100 Canadian jobs. Wonder what Boeing said behind closed doors now that they've heard the Chinese will be able to glean all the good stuff out of servicing the soon to be delivered 787 Dreamliner. Bet that news went over well with Boeing considering the Chinese have been eying their own heavy airliner designs for years. GE must be having a bird by now as some of the technology employed in the new engines will be studied and soon be up for sale on ebay. <smirk>

And the idiots sitting around Harpo in Ottawa chime in about how terrible the public is by the long line ups to fly out of Buffalo. They caused it - but it's 'our' fault? Worlds most expense landing fees and half your ticket price is phoneyed up taxes on top of taxes and we're told we are at fault??!!

GFYS Lisa.

Bob Rouleau

Big stink in Montreal since Aveos announced that they're closing. Aveos was sold by A/C and supposed to do the aircraft servicing in Montreal. for some reason they have gone out of business and there are massive lay-offs. Rumors are A/C has shifted maintenance to El Salvador and maybe China in spite of a contract with Aveos which is good til 2013. What will Lisa say?

JimV8

Don't know enough about the specifics on why a wildcat happened. The result was obvious and caused a lot of inconvenience. Air Canada is of course a private corporation but is recognized a the national carrier and as such has a responsibility to maintain schedules. As far as costs go the landing fees in Canada are beyond outrageous and I'm with Christien and happy to drive to Buffalo for flights within the USA.

I wonder about the mindset of the Air Canada workers though. They chose to frustrate and inconvenience their customers by their actions and that only serves to push customers to West Jet and other baggage handlers.

pongobaz

I fly A LOT...about 80 flights a year. Of my last 20 flights on AC since January, 13 have been delayed for an hour or more because of labour disputes. Every time I asked the reason for the delay, the concierge in the lounge was honest enough to tell me it was "work to rule" actions by pilots and grounds personnel. A few weeks ago, my flight to Calgary was delayed to the point that I got in at 2am instead of 10:30 pm...I got 4 hours sleep before having to be ready to run a 6 hr workshop. I was beat, inconvenienced and pissed, then I got to fly home (1 hr delay) at 6pm the same day!
Not enough competition on domestic routes in this country; Porter doesn't go everywhere I need to go, and Westjet isn't really geared to business travelers (no lounges, first/business cabins, etc...).
Yeah, flying sucks.

Speedyellow993

You are BANG ON!!! City Pulse 24 just reported that as the probable cause of the strike.

imcarthur

While AC ain't perfect, it is better than most. The US airlines are pitiful. I usually fly 40-50 flights per year on AC to the US. I would say no more than 10% have left or arrived late. The staff treat me exactly how I treat them. If I am cheery, they typically respond the same. Ditto surly.

I know people love to dump on airlines, but overall AC ain't bad.

That said, Turkish Air's First Class is a serious cut above AC, Air France, Lufthansa, Lot . . .

Ian

arcteryxbird

It was quite the scene today , ramp workers out front , and the suits ( managers etc. ) throwing bags!
Air Canada employees , it seems , are always getting the shaft. No wonder so many are pissed off.
However in my opinion they should be deemed an essential service.
Pearson is a central hub for the world , when there are disturbances they affect too many lives not to be . Continue working and let the unions do their job.
When there are no workers, the planes sit with passengers aboard , until someone on the ground signals the pilot to proceed to the gate / movable bridge . A distance of 200' or less.
The amount of time / fuel is a huge waste, I see it daily and I'm sure many of you have experienced this .
What is the reason for this , I don't know ... but it sure is frustrating to fly

Torontoworker

The problem lays with the left over has been's that Milton brought in from Continental - they're still there in senior positions. It doesn't help that the investors are not in it for the long haul but are pizzed that their trapped with the current share price and have no where to escape. The future with a service based industry will always be the client and their needs first - not the shareholders. The shareholders get their return when the business pleases customers and they in return reward you with their patronage.

Right now this airline has it backward - in that the drive for economy is to service the shareholders FIRST. If that means a Ryan Air clone here in Canada - so be it.

The spinoff's by this management was done solely to get out from under the pension payments. The maintenance people spun off a few years back have been demanding their former employer transfer their remaining payments - that's the reason it was sent over the edge and the aircraft sent to the third world for maintenance. Take away the work - bankrupt the company as a result and poof - no more unfunded liabilities. Air Lisa just toasted their 37% ownership of Aveos. In the end it is easier and cheaper to kill off the company and it's workers as the share price loss is about squat.

Remember who the CEO is; the guy who told the workers to take a 50% on the dollar loss on pensions and a 25% loss on wages back in 2003 or the airline wouldn't fly. Now he's back as CEO and his nickname back in 2003 was 'the enforcer'. Yup, things will get better...

Does anyone really think this is going anywhere but the dumpster in the long run?

george44

I fly a lot with my job and have been doing that for more than 10 years now. As much as possible I will always fly out of Toronto and on Air Canada. There are times when I cannot do that, the price difference compared to Buffalo is just too high and I have to fly from there. I see lots of ON plates in the parking lot. That's too bad for the Canadian airlines and for Canadian jobs. The taxes are high and the operating costs are high, I've read an article in the Globe & Mail, Mr. Rovinescu, the President of AC, estimates that AC would save one billion per year if it could operate out of the US. The unions are asking for money and benefits, fine, but can the airline afford to pay? they have defined benefit pension, how many of you guys have that? how many companies have terminated such plans? I am sure they have other benefits and the pay is not so bad. There is always the other side of the coin, agreed, if it's so bad working for AC why don't they find another job where they can be happy and get more money? grounding the only national airline this country has is not an acceptable option at least not in my view. Air Canada is respected all over the world at least everywhere I've been to. They have new planes and they are usually clean. I have flown with all the US airlines, many times the planes are old and dirty. They took me safely to where I had to go but I was not comfortable flying with them. I had to because of the price and sometimes the places I had to go to. I will continue to fly AC and hope it will survive in spite of belligerent unions. Thank you for listening,

George

wildcat077

Got that right Bob !
I'm with AC and all of my former Aveos colleagues got the axe this week,many with over 25 years seniority who missed the cut to go to Air Canada !
That's about as much as i'll comment publicly ...

Cheers !
Phil

shinrai

^ Very well put George. Internationally AC is one of the most convenient and professional airlines out there. There are times when I too am frustrated with hold ups or bad attitudes from workers of entitlement and wish they would move on to other careers or further their education.

IXLR8

I hear that so often about many things up here. I'd like to know what it costs to land a B767 in Newark compared to Toronto. It ran me $613 for a flight to MIA. The passenger sitting next to me from my Newark connection paid $220 from Chicago, about one-third of what I paid!!!. The first leg was equal in length.

And the ramp rats make a very good buck. When I was a flight instructor I made peanuts compared to an AC baggage handler or even a city bus driver; I can do the latter two without much training.

As for categorizing them as an essential service as has been mentioned in the news, they'd have to do that to city buses long before even considering the airlines.

Torontoworker

Leadership, leadership, leadership. When you ask your workers for concessions and you parcel some out the door - yet all this time your losing money and are in the red, your share price is worth a large double double and you have the GALL to vote yourself a 4.5M wage??!! What have you done except slurped from the trough?

Some talk about the only national airline we have. Really? Follow this guys plans much? He wants the airline offshore BUT still wants a protected Canadian market place (care of our friend Lisa and Steve) but of course while taking our money for tickets - he doesn't want to pay taxes back to our population. Fair? Not in his vocabulary.

Anyone still use Aeroplan? Remember how they made you feel like a warfare recipient because you didn't want to fly at 3am on Tango - that's if they could find a flight that week for you? Another great sell off scam.

They need to go under one more time. This time start up with new management and a CEO who is an airline guy. The aircrew actually want to work with a new group towards a better future for all. Maybe a West Jet model? Enough of the corporate raiders and flip artists running a formerly great airline into the ground who wouldn't know the difference between an APU and a microwave if it fell on them...