Shareholder

The National Post is reporting that a number of academic studies being commissioned by Transport Canada on the airline industry are proposing varying ways of strengthening competition against AC. These could include cabotage, open skies, and larger foreign equity ownership rules. This is based on a reading of draft reports which the article says are posted on the Study Group's web site [no URL is given]. You can find the story at the bottom of the newspaper's opening webpage:
http://www.nationalpost.com/

They don't seem to provide actual story URLs. Also, if any of you super sleuths with greater web skills than I can locate the URL of the Study Group, please post it. This would make for great discussion after having been able to read the full reports and comment on them.

From what the Post story quotes, I personally would be skeptical of the viability of some of the options offered, but then again, my belief is this country cannot really afford competition in the traditional sense, as past 5-years of AC versus CP have amply demonstrated. [Great for customers, but where will the investors come from to provide all that red ink?] Letting the current system evolve, with the range of smaller new entries at varying service levels, is probably a better way of maintaining segment-by-segment competition in markets where it can be sustained. This will be enhanced next week when RootsAir gets going, and when Royal|Canada3000 introduces its enhanced front cabin on more routes. Real question becomes how viable service can be provided beyond the 8 or 10 major markets. So will these reports be outdated by events by the time they are officiallly released?

silverpie

http://www.nationalpost.com/home/sto...22/508690.html

silverpie

http://www.reviewcta-examenltc.gc.ca...nouncement.htm

or
http://www.reviewcta-examenltc.gc.ca...pages/avis.htm

Shareholder

Thank you, Silverpie.