I think what's most surprising or troubling for AC is that WS seems to not just be profitable from a financial standpoint, but they also seem to have a mostly contented workforce. There's no big push for unionization and apparently it's harder to get employed by WS than it is to be accepted to Harvard (according to a speech made at SFU a few months ago).

If WS have money coming in; a happy, competitive workforce; a growing feeder network; a large number of efficient new planes coming in; strong customer satisfaction; a growing OneWorld relationship; and if they bring in widebodies for long haul flying, AC could be in quite a lot of trouble.