International Trade committee  Absolutely, cargo in the belly of the plane is a significant business for us. It's said that every year we carry more lobsters than we do passengers. I don't know that we've ever actually counted the lobsters, but it's a good thing to say. It's a very significant business for u

International Trade committee  No. We were asked that question during our recent quarterly and annual results calls, and we haven't seen any softness in the demand in western Canada. We're watching that very closely and hope that there won't be. Hopefully, it's just the nice weather in western Canada that's

International Trade committee  Sure. I'm happy to try to do that briefly. If you look at Australia, it did an experiment in the early 2000s. They tried a sort of one-size-fits-all open skies. In the short term, it was very good for Australian consumers. You saw a lot more airlines flying in, especially from t

International Trade committee  I think the first is that the Star Alliance is not a joint venture. We don't have anti-trust immunity and we don't deal within the Star Alliance with things such as marketing, timing of flights, pricing of flights, and things of that nature. As for what it is, we work together o

International Trade committee  I think our assessment would be similar in our results call. We have a fair amount of U.S. revenue from American customers who buy tickets on Air Canada to fly to Canada, so that's a natural hedge in U.S. dollars. Still, the vast majority of our dollars are in Canadian dollars.

International Trade committee  Absolutely, I'll take a crack at the two questions. I was thinking of you, Mr. Cannan, when I flew out to Vancouver recently and there was some B.C. wine served on board. I was glad to see that. To answer the two questions, first, in terms of the global markets action plan, I th

International Trade committee  To the extent that we've consulted with the negotiator and asked for access...and access can be many things. It can be code share access, which is obviously the way that we initially build routes into places like north and west Africa—that's what we're focused on right now, code

International Trade committee  No. The ATAs don't specifically contain clauses, but it is a question of access. The Gulf airlines are always seeking increased access to Canada, so what our position at Air Canada is, is that we have to look at airlines like Emirates and Etihad and the Gulf carriers and really t

International Trade committee  Emirates and the Gulf airlines are all privately held, essentially state-owned companies. They are all funded by their governments, and they all operate in a non-transparent manner. None of them are publicly listed and none of them release any financial reporting. It is our best

International Trade committee  Thank you for the question. No, it's a serious problem. If we don't have the facilitation in place to transit customers or welcome customers to Canada, that can become a serious issue for us, and it can become a barrier to further growth. Proper funding of agencies such as CATS

International Trade committee  Absolutely, I'd love to, and thank you for the question. Visas are, especially with respect to transit passengers who are a key model for us and for the major hub airports in Canada, the key way we will expand our growth. If you look at the hub airports I mentioned—the UAE, Sing

International Trade committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, for having us here today. It is a pleasure for me to address you today. I am joined today by David Waugh, as you mentioned, who is our director of international regulatory affairs, and Fitti Lourenco, our director of federal government affairs