Ah yes, this route. I remember hearing about it a while back. Apparently it was a very important route for AC and Transport Canada. So important, apparently, that AC's CEO used it to illustrate the need for protecting AC.
Air Canada's Rovinescu cites Ottawa-Frankfurt as an example. "When you look at who travels on this flight, only 15% are people going between Ottawa and Frankfurt. The other 85% are connecting in Frankfurt to fly somewhere else. If another carrier siphons off even just the 15% headed for the Middle East, then the route is no longer viable."
And here we are four years later, with YEG-LHR and YOW-FRA reduced to seasonal services and a couple of thousand jobs at Aveos gone for good measure.
I'm sure there are perfectly legitimate reasons for these 'developments'. However, one cannot help but marvel at the cynicism involved: "Protect us to protect these routes...which we'll scrap for completely unrelated reasons whenever it suits us". It almost seems...dishonest.
I wonder if Transport Canada will hold them to account. One would expect that a transport authority that agrees to protect an airline on the basis of protecting certain routes, will notice - and take issue - with the erosion of those routes. Not that I expect them to.