Aviation Week interviewed AC CEO Michael Rousseau recently:
https://aviationweek.com/air-transpo...gy-focus-areas
It's a wide-ranging interview touching on many topics, including AC's continued international expansion, the importance of 6th freedom traffic, OTP, and others.
A note on 6th freedom:
Sixth freedom flying is an ascendant part of the revenue diversification strategy.
“We sit on top of a market that’s the most active travel market in the world. The US market is 10 times our size. We don’t have to get a lot of traffic moving up from there to catch our international flights for us to make that a very successful flight for us,” Rousseau said.
This is just one of the catalysts for Air Canada’s burgeoning expansion south of the border, with secondary markets like Salt Lake City, Utah, and Orange County, California, joining the map. Air Canada’s JV with United Airlines enjoys a combined 58% share of seats, August 2023 OAG data show, with LCC competitor WestJet a distant 14.5%.