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Aviation Memorabilia Newsletter Since 1995

Aviation Memorabilia Newsletter

Since 1995

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Subject: [The NetLetter] NetLetter nr 802 Dec 17/03 - The NetLetter
Date: Wed, 17 Dec 2003 16:54:24 -0800
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N E T L E T T E R   >  CANADA   <
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( For retirees of the new Air Canada family)

Number 802  Dec 17th., 2003. We first published in October 1995.
Circulation: 2700+


Chief Pilot - Vesta Stevenson   -      Co-pilot  - Terry Baker


To get in touch with either editor/pilot our  email address is
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. Need to know.
Employee travel to Delhi. The recent embargo on all space available
personal travel from Toronto to Delhi was lifted on Nov. 29, however please
be advised travel will be difficult due to heavy passenger loads and
unexpected payload limitations. Even if flights show space available, you
may not get on because of revenue cargo shipments affect the maximum weight
limitations of an aircraft. As mentioned in previous Daily texts, due to
high seasonal passenger loads an embargo on all space available pass travel
from Delhi to Toronto will be in place for the period of Dec. 20, 2003 -
Jan. 31, 2004. Non-revenue travel from India during this peak travel season
will be additionally difficult as other carriers are also experiencing
heavy flight bookings. We have been told that Saturday and Sunday travel
will be especially challenging. If you’re still planning to travel to
India, we recommend you plan alternate routings and have the appropriate
tickets for your back-up travel choices ordered and with you before you
begin your trip, as ZED fare ticketing is not possible in Delhi.

More employee travel news - Travel profiles will be refreshed in January
2004.  On Jan. 19, 2004, all active and retired employee travel privilege
holders’ profiles will be updated with the 2004 pass allotments. As a
result, all travel completed and billed before Jan. 18 will be considered
as part of your 2003 allotment of passes. Any travel completed and billed
on or after Jan.18 will be deducted from your 2004 allocation. As an
additional employee travel update, the partner pass program will not
change, except that now employees or retirees have the ability to nominate
a partner or non-dependent child at anytime during the year.  Single
employees/retirees will, however, only be able to change their nominated
partner twice during the year. Also, the parent pass program will be
changed to offer parents unlimited travel on Air Canada, so the ability to
book AC ZED travel for them will be removed.  This means that your parents
trips are no longer part of the partner allotment of 10.  Other 2004
Employee Travel changes will be communicated to you shortly.

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. Nice to know!
Computer purchase program now available for employees. IBM has struck a
deal with Air Canada to be the exclusive supplier of personal desktop and
laptop computers to employees and retirees under the Employee Computer
Purchase Program, with discounts of 7 to 15 per cent off regular rates. New
packages will be offered six times a year. Dell and Gateway are no longer
part of the program. The program is open to all active and retired AC
employees (in Canada only), including subsidiaries. Payroll deduction is
not available. To view IBM’s offers, visit www.ibm.ca/epp/corporate, and
enter your User ID, which can be your name or your Air Canada ID number, or
call 1-888-315-7408. Current specials are also listed on Aeronet/Tools and
References/Employee Computer Purchase Program.

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. Remember when?
50 years of flying to Jamaica – time to celebrate. Fifty years ago on
Dec. 17, Air Canada, then known as Trans-Canada Air Lines (TCA) inaugurated
weekly air service between Canada and Montego Bay, Jamaica, using the
40-seat propeller-driven Canadair DC-4M “North Star.” At that time, Air
Canada was only the second airline to fly to Jamaica, after Pan American.
The flight time from Toronto was 11 hours with a stop in Nassau, Bahamas.
An indication of what a big event this was in the community was that the
local newspaper listed the names of the 11 passengers who arrived that day.
(If any reader has any info on this flight ie fin #, members of the crew,
we will be happy to print the information - eds)


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. Star Alliance news.
The member airlines of Star Alliance, the global airline network, have
today agreed on a plan to implement global electronic ticketing
capabilities by the end of 2004.

United Airlines parent UAL Corp. announced late yesterday that it had
secured $2 billion in Chapter 11 exit financing contingent on the US
government's guaranteeing a major portion of the loan

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Subject: Bermuda Sky Queen NetLetter nr 800 -
Don Demeza reports - I was a radio operator in Goose Bay on duty the
evening in 1947 that saw the Bermuda Sky Queen run out of fuel and land in
the Atlantic about 500 miles from Newfoundland. They were communicating on
my frequency so I was obviously listening intently. I recall that they said
the waves were 18 feet and we had a North Star overhead the crew of which I
believe watched the landing - I think the flying boat disappeared twice and
then re-appeared. By the time they were rescued all onboard were seasick.

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. Fraser Muir sends this response to the memorabilia article in NetLetter
801 -
John Rogers, President of Pionairs is at present finalizing a meeting with
the management of the Aviation museum, the meeting is planned for January
10th; he has asked me to try to attend. The fact that they have agreed to a
meeting is of course a step in the right direction.
FraserM.

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Marlie Kelsey sends this information -
Very sad news. YXY was the heart of the CP Air BC District operation and a
major part of the history of Western Canada aviation. It is an indication
of the sad state of affairs in the airline industry that this is happening.
Some of these laid off employees have more than 20 years working for the
company in Whitehorse! They are true Yukoners and have been loyal employees
of both CP Air and Air Canada though all the ups and downs.
Air Canada lays off 10 employees
by Stephanie Waddell
A Whitehorse Star Archive story originally published December 10, 2003

Air Canada spokeswoman Renée Smith-Valade says the layoffs of 10 Air Canada
customer sales and services employees in Whitehorse are a reflection of Air
Canada’s cutback last month to one flight a day here.
The layoffs will take effect Jan. 7, she said in an interview early this
afternoon.
As the company restructures, it is looking at the demand in markets across
the country.
In Whitehorse, it has meant a reduction from two flights a day on the
Whitehorse/Vancouver route down to one. The layoffs are a result of the
decision to cut the service in half.
The layoffs won’t take effect until Jan. 7 because Air Canada wanted to
accommodate the busy holiday season in December, Smith-Valade said.
“It’s an unfortunate reality,” Zip president Steve Smith said of the
layoffs coming from the restructuring.
Zip Air is an Air Canada company which flys the Whitehorse/Vancouver route
daily. While Zip performs the duties of serving the territory, the local
employees are from Air Canada.
Smith noted that next summer, Zip is planning to move back to two flights
each day for the busier season.
“We’ll review the future demand,” Smith-Valade said of offering an
additional summer flight.
At that point, employees who were given layoff notices effective in early
January could be given the opportunity to come back.
“They haven’t been fired,” Smith said.
Smith-Valade said the collective agreement between the airline and its
employees allows for “bumps” where laid-off employees, depending on
seniority, could move elsewhere in the company.
Often, that can mean moving to another region.
The most senior employees to be laid off are also the first to be called
back if there is a recall.
Smith noted the layoffs won’t impact the flight schedules nor the ZIP
service coming into and out of the territory.
While he couldn’t speak specifically to the details of the layoffs because
it is an Air Canada move, he stressed that Zip’s service to the territory
wouldn’t be impacted.
“It’s going to be a bleak Christmas,” NDP Tourism critic Gary McRobb said
this morning.
The announcement comes just a week after North American Tungsten closed its
Cantung mine just inside the N.W.T. border where approximately 100 Yukoners
were employed.
Now the news of local Air Canada layoffs has left McRobb wondering where
the hope is for Yukoners. He already knows of numerous Yukoners who have
left the territory for work elsewhere.
“There’s no sense of hope,” Liberal Leader Pat Duncan agreed this morning.
McRobb pointed out that during Premier Dennis Fentie’s time in opposition
with the NDP, he criticized then-premier Duncan for not moving forward with
a trade and investment fund.
Now that he’s the premier, he doesn’t seem to be doing anything about it,
McRobb said.
He also noted that “a heftier winter works program” could help the
territory through the season.
“FireSmart only goes so far,” he said of the brush-slashing program.
For Duncan, the matter comes down to what the government is doing to
generate excitement about the Yukon. There’s nobody on flights coming into
the territory, she said, because there’s no excitement.
She pointed out that during her term as premier, the Liberal government
pushed for a pipeline route through Alaska into the Yukon along the Alaska
Highway, which generated interest in the territory.
“There (were) people travelling here,” she said.
The layoffs at both Cantung and Air Canada will also hurt the retail sector
in the territory.
“People are watching their pennies,” Duncan said.
It also doesn’t help that the Canadian dollar is high, which could mean
fewer Alaskans doing their shopping in Whitehorse, she noted.
Meanwhile, Fentie and Community Services Minister Glenn Hart are trying to
get their concerns for the airline workers through to Air Canada.
Fentie spoke with Smith earlier today, noting the slashes in staff in
Whitehorse doesn’t mean a flight reduction.
As with laid-off Cantung employees, Fentie said, the government is working
to expedite employment insurance benefits.
He is also hoping that Yukoners won’t take the “dimmest” view on the
situation. On the positive side, another local carrier has come into the
market over the past couple of years.
Air North is now servicing a Whitehorse/Vancouver route six days a week and
a Whitehorse/Calgary/Edmonton route three days a week. That addition to Air
North’s service has employed a number of Yukoners, Fentie pointed out.
He is hoping to speak to the employees to get ideas on what the government
can do to improve the situation.
Meanwhile, Whitehorse isn’t alone in experiencing Air Canada layoffs. Since
Air Canada has begun its restructuring, numerous employees have been let go.
“It’s been an ongoing process,” Smith-Valade said.
She did not have an exact number of layoffs across the country because some
employees who were initially laid off have been recalled.

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