Air Canada Aims to Climb by Pleasing customers

    May 17, 2006
    The airline is focusing more on tailoring fares to customers' needs, such as by giving discounts to customers who don't check their bags or who waive their right to change their flights.

    Source The Hamilton Spectator

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    Air Canada, under pressure from high fuel costs and labour issues, is looking to regain stability by cutting costs and changing the way its customers travel, CEO Montie Brewer said.

    "We're changing the travel experience for the better, hopefully to create better demand, and we're changing to gain efficiencies," Brewer told a transportation and aerospace industry conference.

    "If we make headway in all these areas, I think we're going to have a very, very stellar year in 2006 and actually get ourselves prepared for a stable company going forward."

    The airline has been targeting costs. Last month it announced it was boosting ticket prices by up to $10 per flight to counter record-high prices for fuel, its second-largest operating expense after labour.

    "There's a lot of process that we have taken out, but we now need to get the overhead out as well," Brewer said.

    Air Canada, he said, has been making changes to what its sells and how it sells it, as it aims to differentiate itself from competitors such as WestJet Airlines Ltd. The airline is focusing more on tailoring fares to customers' needs, such as by giving discounts to customers who don't check their bags or who waive their right to change their flights.

    "We want to have the ability, every time you buy a ticket, to have five different decisions you like to make as to how to tailor your journey to your needs, and get the best price for you as an individual, whether it be a discount or an increase."

    The company is also replacing and refurbishing its fleet to get more fuel-efficient aircraft such as the Boeing 777, which will begin to make the rounds this winter. It will also be getting Boeing 787s in 2010. And it's preparing for an arbitration with a union representing 10,000 of its workers in July, after wage talks broke off.

    The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers hopes to recover wages lost in restructuring.

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