Thank you, Mr. Chair.
This has been a very enlightening conversation. I'm not going to start speaking about the politics of what we're trying to discuss today or, of course, some of the answers that some of the people around us are trying to get out of you to further that agenda. I am going to concentrate my questions on the business at hand, and that is to deal with the state of airline competition here in Canada and ultimately the ability that we have as partners to make it better for the consumer, whether it be through cost or through connectivity.
I'm really going to concentrate on this session with you, Mr. Liebman, with respect to Air Transat, and the following session with Mr. Jones from Flair, specifically on the “how” to the “what”. I just basically underline and bold what the “what” is. Now it's the “how”.
I'm going to give you the floor, because you will not actually be answering to me but to this young lady over here with testimony that is going to be contained within the final report to be presented to this committee, which will go to the department for a response and then, hopefully, from there to a strategy to actually get it done.
With that, I have a very simple question: How did you do it? Specifically, how do we learn from you with respect to encouraging further competition? How did you stay afloat? What investments did you make on the operating and capital sides? How can we learn from you to ensure that from that level or foundation we can move forward with a strategy we can embark upon?