Originally Posted by
Stranger
Depends. It seems the govt believes they are needed as aitor. So they might be the recipint of a rescue paxkage if other airlines get one too.
Won't happen. They would be nuts. Especially if the decision is confirmed.
I think Air Canada buying Air Transat is nuts. They should just let it go out of business and fill in the gap.
On the other hand, WestJet has consistently demonstrated over its entire existence that there is something about the Quebec market that it does not understand. I live on the west coast, so can't pin it down either. Despite all there effort they have been unable to establish any reasonable presence for a national airline in Montreal or any other city in Quebec. Best option is Onex just buys AirTransat, gives them a mandate to build a Montreal hub with full code share on WestJet and an integrated loyalty program while telling WestJet management to avoid going near AirTransat. If they do that than Air Canada has a real competitor.
If we ever want decent loyalty programs form either of them there has to be competition. Leaving AirTransat to go bankrupt is not going to be good for competition. The Europeans have perfected the art of having more than one airline in the same airline group with a different culture.