Aviation Week Interview With AC CEO Michael Rousseau (September 2023)
Sep 22, 23, 6:12 am
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Aviation Week Interview With AC CEO Michael Rousseau (September 2023)
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:
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%.
“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%.
Last edited by Adam Smith; Sep 22, 23 at 11:30 am Reason: Add context
Sep 22, 23, 9:25 am
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Were not Delta. They block at 85. We block at 50 to 60, so we will have OTP that is not the top of the market, he explained. We dont want to be the bottom, but were going to be somewhere in between, basically.
Sep 22, 23, 10:39 am
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Sep 22, 23, 11:22 am
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Sep 22, 23, 11:44 am
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Sep 22, 23, 11:49 am
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AC under-blocks its flights? Wow, because for years people have been shouting me down when I tried to explain that...
How so? I don't think I've ever missed a connection when the first flight was early. Unless your view of "issues" is sitting around an airport waiting as opposed to missing them.
One point that wasn't made in the article is that DL's high OTP has led it to shorten MCTs in many cases (e.g. at MSP, it's 30 minutes for D-D, and only 35 for D-I). DL obviously has vastly better OTP than AC, but with AC's generally longer MCTs, I wonder what the rate of misconnects is like - it doesn't take much of a delay to blow a 35-minute connection to an international flight.
One point that wasn't made in the article is that DL's high OTP has led it to shorten MCTs in many cases (e.g. at MSP, it's 30 minutes for D-D, and only 35 for D-I). DL obviously has vastly better OTP than AC, but with AC's generally longer MCTs, I wonder what the rate of misconnects is like - it doesn't take much of a delay to blow a 35-minute connection to an international flight.
Sep 22, 23, 11:49 am
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OTP sucks, but so does foregoing status benefits to choose another airline that may have other issues, or changing ones travel pattern by changing work or lifestyle.
Sep 22, 23, 12:04 pm
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Japan, which has 120 million population, can only support two truly global full-service careers. Maybe another 20-30 years, we could see WestJet grow large enough?
That said, perhaps with Porter coming in, they could bring about real competition on domestics routes.
Sep 22, 23, 1:13 pm
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The bit about blocking is ridiculous. AC blocks their flights for perfection, which is dumb. Even a 10 min taxi delay makes them late. Block 20 more minutes, Block another 15 for a turn (it takes more than 30 minutes to unload, clean and reboard a flight).. The problem isn't just the single flight OTP, because of their overly aggressive blocking, the inevitable delays cascade ... (porter is guilty of this too).
Glad to hear Rogue is not planned for expansion in the near term.
Glad to hear Rogue is not planned for expansion in the near term.
Sep 22, 23, 1:19 pm
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I would disagree. I would assume there's a lot of people who plan their meetings and their lives (outside of connections) based on arrival time. If you're late half the time, that to me is not quite acceptable. Not that I'm asking for or would ever expect a 100%, but still.
It's like being okay your food being good only 50% of the time at a restaurant you go to. It's just not good enough (for me, anyway.)
It's like being okay your food being good only 50% of the time at a restaurant you go to. It's just not good enough (for me, anyway.)
Sep 22, 23, 2:43 pm
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Sep 22, 23, 4:00 pm
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There is also some apples and oranges between airlines when it comes to establishing the out and in times. Park brake release establishes the out time for the majority of carriers, but procedures differ for when that is allowed to happen.
At AC, everything has to be ready AND pushback clearance from ATC obtained before the brake is allowed to be released. So a flight could be ready to depart on sked, and be held at the gate for a few minutes due to traffic behind on the ramp and this will show up as a late departure. Other airlines have different procedures that arent as strict as AC and will show an on-time departure with my example above.
Sep 22, 23, 4:08 pm
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I would disagree. I would assume there's a lot of people who plan their meetings and their lives (outside of connections) based on arrival time. If you're late half the time, that to me is not quite acceptable. Not that I'm asking for or would ever expect a 100%, but still.
It's like being okay your food being good only 50% of the time at a restaurant you go to. It's just not good enough (for me, anyway.)
It's like being okay your food being good only 50% of the time at a restaurant you go to. It's just not good enough (for me, anyway.)
My point is, despite what people say on CBC and social medias, planes being full pretty much tells that passengers find AC's OTP still "acceptable".
