RE:RE:RE:RE:RE:CN, CPKC"This is delusional. Let's just look at trans-pacific travel. Air Canada accounts for 45% of all seats available across the Pacific. Westjet accounts for 5%. They just lost 10% of their fleet in a hail storm and they are scrambling to solve that problem. The airplanes that could actually make the trip (787s) are all fully booked into their current scheduling..
Jazz is a regional airline. There is no help there.
And Porter....? Good luck riding on an E-195 non stop across the Pacific.
And that is just the Pacific. Air Canada is Canada's # 1 provider for global travel. With it possibly grounded it is very similar to the trains. You are substantially limited in you options for travelling out of Canada.
Any other conclusion is delusional."
The question we are trying to answer is whether the government will intervene in the event of a lockout or strike.
AC has approximately a 44% domestic market share. In Sept/Oct all airlines has extra capacity available. Westjet, Porter, Jazz would all increase their flights and so we might see a loss of 40% domestically. I am quite aware that travel would be extremely difficult. Nobody would argue that or suggest the other airlines would make up the loss completely.
The point is that if the government won't intervene in a 100% loss of rail transport why would they intervene in a 40% loss in domestic transport in the airline industry?
Yes, international travel would be impacted significantly but it's still not 100% especially since other airlines are still an option. Of course it's not ideal (understatement) and as a shareholder I would hate to see AC lose market share but since other airlines would still be an option it's hard to make the "essential service" argument.