So lemme get this straight -- you put the lime in the coconut...

WestJet and Canada 3000 are making gobs of money.

Air Canada is losing gobs of money.

So Air Canada is going to slash expenses (among) other things, which will move their sevice levels even closer to WJ and C3K.

So by the time AC if finished, there will be even less to differentiate AC's service from that of the discounts.

Which in turn means that at least some (perhaps lots of) passengers will switch from AC to a discount carrier, figuring they'll save lots of money while experiencing a similar level of service.

Talk about your rock and a hard place.

I guess the concept of improving or adding service, to attract more business or make the customer willing to pay more, is out of the question.

BTW, several times lately people have asked if anyone thought they could do a better job of running a $10 billion (or soon to be $9 billion, I suppose) company. I think Nortel is proof positive that anyone who is either breathing, or at least warm to the touch, can run such a company. How well a company is run is appears largely the luck of the draw, as in "external factors."

I volunteer Village Idiot.