Today's Globe & Mail is full of articles speculating what caused AC to pass the brink and file for bankruptcy.
In my opinion the most balanced and accurate article is that written by Fabrice Taylor, starting on page 1 of the Business Section. This article goes back to the good old days of Canadian and suggests that AC would have failed with or without 911 or SARS.
Good reading.
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SE Over 2 Million Miles With AC & CP
AC*SE, good point and As stated in another thread the unions now deserve a good asskicking here and I hopeCollenette has the ¨cojones¨ to act responsibily here to give the company a fighting chance at recovery.
As tempting as it is to lay the lion's share of the "blame" for this situation at the various unions' feet, I'm not buying it. And believe me, I am no union supporter.
Air Canada is a victim of itself. Instead of focussing on the kind of market that it could make money at, it has been observed that they slavishly insisted on pursuing competitors that it couldn't compete with. Why? For no other reason than to drive them out of business, from what I can tell.
And that was the long and short of the entire business model. No development of a high-class international presence, no development of a service-oriented class that might attract the business traveller, no development of a NEW and UNIQUE model that would DIFFERENTIATE them from anyone else. Nope. Instead, go after every little guy that shows up.
I swear management at AC couldn't have a unique thought if it struck them in the butt. It is far to easy to blame the staff and unions. There was no way AC was going to "save" itself into profitability.
Someone posted a thread a while ago bemoaning how they (AC management) was bereft of ideas and I still endorse that.
Step 1 in the restructure? Milton and everyone else on the board is gone and NO golden parachute. If anything, they get exactly the same severance package the staff is likely going to get (NOT!) when the downsizing finally comes.
