Bytepusher,

I think what shareholder was meaning to say was that AC had pretty limited options from the point of view of the business case.

AC can't give the flying to Jazz because the scope clauses in the collective agreements do not permit the carrier to download flying without protecting positions on the mainline carrier.

So, if AC keeps the flying on mainline, the issue comes down to cost per available seat km. If they don't run the cost down, they expose themselves to a complaint of predatory pricing.

If AC had taken mainline aircraft and reconfigured them, they would still have to be crewed according to the standards set out in the FA's collective agreement, by crews paid at the mainline rate. The only aircraft that have labour costs low enough to keep the costs per seat km down are the CRJ's--because they have the lowest paid pilots, and only 1 FA.

However, these aircraft do not offer the load capacities necessary to operate as profitably on low margin fares in relatively high volume city pairs.