There is some very significant news for frequent flyers and Aeroplan points holders that is not in the printed releases, but it was mentioned at the top of Robert's commentary on the analysts call.
The revenue from Aeroplan rewards is now included in the operating statistics and not in the non-operating line. This seems like a small accounting change, but I feel it makes a significant change for those looking to redeem AE points for flights on Air Canada.
Thus:
-To the revenue controllers that are looking at the booking levels on flights, AE now is the passenger airlines 'biggest customer' (it used to be Canada Post). It was reported at $41 million in the 4th quarter alone and growing significantly.
-Previously the people that run the airline side of things received no credit for AE bookings, but now they are a revenue stream for the branch.
-If a flight segment is doing poorly, then it benefits the revenue controller to open up AE redemption allotments to gain more customers as they will actually see a gain in revenue, rather than a dilution of their yields.
-The effect in the 4th quarter was to raise the Yield from 15.6 cents per mile to 16.0 cents per mile system wide.
-Also since the airline must now buy AE points from Aeroplan they will also be encouraged to sell as much to Aeroplan as possible to pay for these points. A sell to Aeroplan is a seat redemption.
-It is also possible that if/when upgrades with points comes along that the airline side will be gaining points for each upgrade and thus be able to post an upgrade as revenue.
This could be a big change for Aeroplan card holders.