Ben Lipsey

For certain types of maintenance work, yes.

why fly

its a long way to deadhead a plane. I guess the maintenance workers in Winnipeg are happy to know its so much cheaper in Singapore. Singapore would not be a low wage country.

In another thread people want Air Canada to be MORE Canadian.
Perhaps a start might be some maintenance jobs coming back to Canada.

winnipegrev

777s and 333s have heavy checks done in Singapore. Rouge 763 conversions which can take 50+ days are also done there. I believe the relatively uncommon D checks can take around 40,000 man hours so a savings of even $10/hr by not paying Canadian AME wages or benefits adds up to a lot of money.

The 333s and 763s are ferried in from YVR, though it is easy to see that with such long checks they have a good shot at recouping fuel expense to get there. The 777s are rotated in off HKG flights and have just a short 3hr hop to SIN, so they must be a no brainer for AC. In previous winters there were pretty common 77W subs for the 77L YYZ-HKG - just to rotate in/out of SIN.

jbb

Singapore is by no means a low-wage country within the context of its region or globally, however (and I admit to not having statistics to back this up) from my experience, wages are generally lower in Singapore relative to Europe and North America. Its the real estate that's the killer for the cost of doing business. I know plenty of white collar Singaporeans who after several years of work are still on less than C$20,000/year... there really aren't any proper unions here and no minimum wage, which has kept wages lower... but of course, it's also helped to keep the economy at essentially full employment (no unemployment).

PLeblond

In theory its a great idea. But most other airlines do the same (example UA 777s go to Hong Kong) so by doing so expenses increase and prices need to increase, which doesn't fly in this industry.

AC needs to keep all the competitive advantages it can when margins are this tight.

yyznomad

I wish AC actually flew commercial to SIN!

ridefar

They don't care if they retain FF customers--why on earth would they care if they retain Canadian jobs? It is clearly about saving money. If they can save $100 on a $1000000 expenditure at the cost of 50 Canadian jobs they will take the savings. Particularly if those 50 jobs are unionized. It is pretty clear from AC's history of labour relations that the only thing they like more than angering customers is angering unions...

PLeblond

That would be a loooooong flight. YVR-SIN is actually further than YVR-SYD. Not sure the economics are do-able. From YYZ its almost the same distance/time connecting through Europe to SIN, and with that, you get to fly SQ.

yulred

Sure. And consumers would be more sympathetic if the airline didn't stand in the way of consumers doing exactly what it is doing, namely sourcing products and services to get better value for money from places that can provide it cheaply.

After all, AC's CEO compared open skies to dairy supply management. Since he's such a big fan of the latter, perhaps the government should put quotas on the amount of services and products AC can source from abroad. I'm sure he wouldn't mind - not if he's intellectually honest anyway.

I m a free market guy, but since AC explicitly opposes the idea of free markets, perhaps it should put its money where it's mouth is.

PLeblond

So your suggesting that a huge multinational corporation pay more for a service on principle, or if they choose to do so, they should not lobby publicly for better market conditions?

I too am a free market guy. Unfortunately, there are no free markets anymore. Actually, I don't believe there every really were any free markets. So I can't blame a company for looking for every competitive advantage (within reason).

Some ideologies exist only within the walls of a University campus.

Mozzarella

For the young'uns in the forum, in the 90's CP flew to SIN, KUL and BKK but normally did so by connecting through HKG or NRT. Still miss CP....

upgradesecret

High cost, low revenue. One of the first things to disappear when CP was taken over.

For the same reasons AC stopped YYZ-LHR-BOM-SIN many years earlier.

PLeblond

I'll admit it would be cool to fly a RTW: YYZ-LHR-BOM-SIN-NRT-YVR-YYZ all on Canadian carriers. Just for good measure, make the last YVR-YYZ leg on Wardair

jaysona

I remember the YVR-HKG-BKK & YVR-HKG-SIN flights very well. IIRC, the HKG-BKK segments were not that full in J. I also miss the YVR-TPE flights.

yulred

Or I'm suggesting that the executives of a huge multinational corporation should adopt the principle they purport to support, instead of, you know, continuing with what appears to be a cynical and dishonest approach.

I find it very disconcerting when a person talks about protecting Canadian jobs on one day, and then ships off high-skilled Canadian jobs the very next day to make sure he and his minions can keep their jobs and pocket their bonuses. If that constitutes ivory tower ideology, so be it.

The irony of it all is that they've shipped the jobs to Singapore of all places. As you may recall, Canada unilaterally cancelled its aviation bilateral with Singapore in the early 1990s at AC's request. I don't know of too many other cases where countries have unilaterally terminated bilateral agreements at the request of a private airline.

I always did have a soft spot for creative destruction. Its a pity its never allowed to run its course in Canada.