Air Canada has announced two new services for 2019:

Toronto-Vienna (year-round) with our Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner and Montréal-Bordeaux (seasonal) with our Boeing 737 MAX 8. The daily Toronto-Vienna flights will begin April 29, 2019 with service reduced to five days a week during the winter season (November-March). This service is offered in partnership with Star Alliance member Austrian Airlines, complementing it’s Montréal-Vienna flights that also begin next April.

The Montréal-Bordeaux route will operate four days a week from June 15 to September 15.

(Source: AC Daily October 4, 2018)

Shirlee Schacter has sent us this information and photos -

The 2018 Central Ontario Pionairs Golf Tournament and Dinner took place at the top-notch Royal Ontario Golf Course in YYZ on August 20, 2018, and it turned out to be a made-to-order weather day for golfers!

Seventy-six golfers played a Scramble format, enjoying the scenery and vistas around the links - some of which offered very good challenges. The ever-popular Putting Contest was also a feature of the day. This course is fast becoming a favourite among the District golf enthusiasts.

Back at the clubhouse, the day culminated with a sumptuous buffet - including roast strip loin and all the trimmings. Central Ontario Director, David McNeilly along with Valdy Prieditis the Tournament Organizer presented trophies and prizes to the major winners. Golfers were invited to the prize tables where a wide variety of booty awaited them. 

The special draw tickets for great merchandise as well as cash also made for several happy winners!

We have these photos -

The 2018 Team Low Gross Champions were: Mike Paralovos, Jim Rae, Verna Keenan and Rolf Schwartje.

And the Top cash prize winner was Gayle Graham. 

It was a great day and will happen all over again on August 19, 2019.

To show some different TCA documents, we have these copies from the personal collection of Gklavas Athanasios which he started some 40 years ago.

(Source: airticketshistory.com)

A TCA-1 "Passenger Receipt" issued July 16, 1946.

The reverse side was Halifax.

The fare was $13.85 plus $2.10 tax.

Here is the cover of the enRoute magazine issued February 2012.

The Sara B. bar in Intercontinental Montreal, photographed by Gabor Jurina, pair’s absinthe with a tall drink of water.

In NetLetter #1399, we had an article on Sudbury station, below is a link to the memories of Norman Howard whose first day at work also fell on the same day, February 1, 1954.

In fact, he opened the door of the first DC-3 to serve Sudbury. 

45 Years of Service.

April 1, 1939 marked the official beginning of passenger service on Trans-Canada Air Lines in and out of Edmonton.

TCA newspaper advertisements told of the Lockheed l4-H aircraft, "the most modern high-speed, twin-engine commercial aircraft in the world" which would whisk passengers from Edmonton to Vancouver in only five and a half hours at a cost of $18.70 return. Edmonton to Montreal flights would take a mere 14 hours and 15 minutes.

We've come a long way since those fledgling days. Air Canada's investment in Edmonton is currently $15 million covering fuel, taxes, landing fees, supplies and a payroll of 395 employees. Not bad considering the entire Edmonton staff of TCA in April 1939 numbered half a dozen.

Fleet update 1984.

Air Canada has completed three transactions involving eight aircraft that could mean a $23 million contribution to revenue.

Federal Express of Memphis is buying two ten-year-old B-727s while four DC-8-54 freighters will be taken over by United Air Leasing of Tulsa.

As well, two L-1011's will be leased to Gulf Air, the national carrier for the Persian Gulf states of Bahrain, Qatar, Oman and the United Arab Emirates. Gulf Air will lease the aircraft for three years with an option on another two years.

Delivery is set for June. The company fleet will consist of 122 aircraft following departure of the eight airplanes.

No one has Fond Memories of Her.

The Lancastrian was a bumpy, noisy bomber with a nose job and a limited life span, designed to bridge the gap between military transport and the newly evolving trans-oceanic airliners. Trans-Canada Air Lines had ten of them through 1947 when they were finally phased out by the North Star.

Our photo is of CF-CMX, which disappeared over the North Atlantic. 

(Note: Our records indicate that it was CF-CMU not CF-CMX which was lost over the Atlantic December 30, 1944 – eds)

The first one was an Avro Lancaster, built in Britain and given a facelift to get it into service in a hurry.

The other nine were built in Canada at Victory Aircraft in Malton. This company is now part of McDonnell Douglas, for where it manufactured ten of them through 1947 when they were finally phased out by the North Star. Although most have retired, there are people still on staff who flew and maintained these aircraft.

No one will recall much about the CF-CMX, one of a fleet of ten. After all, 40 years is a long time to remember an earache crawling over a wing space while balancing hot meals during unexpected turbulence, or even something as simple as walking uphill as soon as you entered the airplane.

Our photo shows purser G.B. Kerr serving a meal service aboard a Lancaster.

Air Canada crews to fly Lancaster.

Only one Lancaster of the some 4,000 that were built still flies. Every year on Battle of Britain Sunday, it thunders through the skies of the United Kingdom as part of the RAF Battle of Britain Commemorative Flight.

Soon a second will take to the air in Canada, flown exclusively by Air Canada volunteers. The company has had a quiet and major role in reviving the retired warrior since it was rescued from a concrete pylon by the Canadian War-plane Heritage in Hamilton.

A few people on staff still remember the days when TCA started the first Canadian Transatlantic air service using the Lancaster to fly mail and VIPs during World War II.

Later the modified Lancastrian became a member of our fleet until the advent of the North Stars. The expertise in airframe and experience with the Merlin engines still exist and Air Canada's technical centre at Dorval and the maintenance facility at Toronto are being used in the Lancaster rehabilitation program.

This year, Air Canada flight crews will complete the project, returning the aircraft to the air.

A Lancaster flown by TCA, CF-CMS was the first four engine commercial aircraft to get a civil registration in Canada. Our photo (left) shows the crew on the first North Atlantic flight from Dorval to Prestwick via Reykjavik. It initiated a four engine era both across the continent and across the Atlantic that lasted until the advent of the tri-motor wide bodies, almost forty years later.

Captain Bernard (Bernie) Brennan, a Toronto-based L-1011 Captain, has been named Operations Chief of the Lancaster project by the Canadian Warplane Heritage. "Captain Brennan and several other Air Canada flight and ground personnel have recently joined the Heritage," says Phil Nelson, CWH Curator, "and we are delighted to have the Air Canada crews exclusively on the Lancaster.

They are a welcome addition to our growing pool of aeronautical expertise." As Operations Chief, Captain Brennan is already screening crew members, putting together an operations manual from historical records, overseeing the compiling of a maintenance manual from commercial, military and personal archives, and negotiating to have the old Lanc's flight characteristics entered into a computer that will make flight planning as accurate for the old bird as it is for the L1011's.

Captain Brennan joined TCA in 1956 and has time on DC-3's, North Stars, Viscounts, DC-8's, DC-9's and currently L1011's.

Looking for a co-worker in the Purchasing & Supply in YUL Power Plant Stores.

John Thompson joined Trans-Canada Air Lines on January 2lst, 1961, first positioned as a junior Storeman Level 1 at hanger #1 with a salary of $49.00 per week. John has worked in most areas of Dorval Stores including Commissary, Main Stores and now Power Plant as a lead since January 31 1986.

He has a keen interest in Loto 6/49 and has been busy attempting to work out a formula to better his chances of winning his dream prize.

(We wonder if John was successful with the 6/49 - we would like the system if he was - eds)

In NetLetter #1400, under the CP Air section, we had a report of the AC/Canadian BC district Reunion, and a mention that the CBC had interviewed several retirees regarding their involvement with the crash of CP 021 in July 1965.

Marlie Kelsey has sent us this information -

“The first two of six episodes of the podcast, titled Uncover, will be released November 12, 2018. The following four episodes will be released online week by week. Once they are released, you will find them here: www.cbc.ca/radio/uncover Also on November 12, the first part of the documentary will air on television on our nightly news program, The National. And I believe the final part of the documentary will air December 10, 2018.”

For five decades Leslie Corness covered aviation events around Edmonton. On this occasion it was the inaugural visit in August 1958 of CPA’s new Bristol Britannia.

A gleaming CF-CZW “Empress of Edmonton” was assigned for the day’s duties and you can see that Edmontonians responded enthusiastically.

Can you imagine such a casual community event today at a major airport! 

(Source: From the Leslie Corness collection via Larry Milberry/CANAV Books)

More from NetLetter #1397 to give some different passenger tickets we have more copies of some Canadian Pacific Airlines documents from the personal collection of Gklavas Athanasios that he started since 40 years.

(Source: airticketshistory.com)

For travel from Toronto to Mexico to Los Angeles to Toronto on June 1, 1967, this ticket was issued.

July 4, 2018 -  PWA Edmonton Mini Ramp Reunion.

Dennis Erickson posted this information on www.pwareunion.com on July 4, 2018 -

History has been made at Fawn Meadows RV Resort Delburne AB. First annual Pacific Western Airlines YXD ramp reunion has been held and was very successful with many great airplane stories of properly loading an airplane on time.

In the early 70's, the airline service into Canada's north was booming. Communities such as Inuvik, Yellowknife, Norman Wells, Resolute, Cambridge Bay, Uranium City and others saw strong growth. PWA saw this opportunity and put cargo aircraft such as 732 and later 742, the 727's, Hercules and Lockheed Electra freighter aircraft. It was this ramp crew that loaded and off loaded tons of cargo, baggage and mail. In terms of tonnage, it was probably the biggest ramp operation in the system.

Add into that the 20+ daily Airbus flights and regular domestic schedule, this crew was some of the hardest working guys in the system. 

(Note - If Dennis would care to supply some names, we will let you know - eds)  

The Pacific Western Airlines 2018 - Picnic/Reunion mentioned in NetLetter #1393 took place on August 12, 2018.

By all accounts, this memorable event was an overwhelming success. Kudos and thanks to Gale and all the organizers - volunteers who made this happen. Thanks to Glynis Santee, Neville Gosling and Gale Brisseau for the photos. 

There are a host of photos on the web site pwareunion.com

Here we have several of the photos, (but no identifications unfortunately - eds)

Neil Burton has sent us this information regarding the de Havilland Moth aircraft.

Although the photo of the aircraft seems to have the registration G-CAUN, we questioned this with Neil and he responded -

The photo was always presented to me by “Curly” Nairn as being G–CAUM. In response to your query, the aircraft with registration G-CAUN was damaged by fire in 1928 at Weston, Ontario.

(Source: Canadian Aircraft Register 1920-28 by John R. Ellis.) 
“Curly” Nairn, even though losing his memory, greatly enhanced my knowledge of aviation in B.C.

It was too bad I didn’t meet him until after my career with PWA, CAIL and Time Air.

Air France-KLM made progress toward resolving a long-running conflict over pay with Air France’s workforce after one of its pilots’ unions agreed in principle to accept a new pay offer put forward by the group’s new CEO Benjamin Smith.

(Source:atwdailynews October 11, 2018)

Hong Kong rights a wrong.

Hats off to Hong Kong Airlines for sticking to ludicrously cheap business class fares from USA after it published them on its website by mistake.

The tickets to Asian destinations - priced at a few hundred dollars for a round trip - were snapped up before the carrier realized its mistake.

CMO George Liu admitted that the fare was "definitely not a marketing gimmick, we really screwed up" he said. Liu learned of the slip up during a barbecue at a friend's house on vacation, but "we have decided to honour the tickets at our own cost. We’re willing to pay a price to keep our promises as a brand,'' he vowed.

Not all operators seem to be so concerned with their good name. In June, a certain UK airline that may still regard itself as the "world's favourite" voided the ticket of passengers who had managed to buy surprisingly cheap flights to the likes of Dubai and Israel through on-line travel agents.

(Source: Flight International magazine issue September 4-10, 2018)

New Canadian ultra-LCC Jetlines said delivery of its first two aircraft is on schedule for “early” second quarter 2019 following the second set of advance lease payments to Dublin-based lessor AerCap.

(Source: atwdailynews.com

Sometimes there’s a razor-thin line between good luck and bad and the unidentified pilot and passenger of what appears to be an ultralight had some time to think about that in South Africa on Friday. The aircraft hit a zipline over a 1,000-foot gorge near Rustenburg in the northwestern part of the country about 8:30 a.m. The line held as the aircraft became entangled in it and hung there for much of the day as authorities puzzled over a rescue. Meanwhile, inside the aircraft, the two unhurt occupants were doing nothing more than trying not to tempt physics. 

"After some time, rescuers reached the aircraft and found the man and woman inside the aircraft,” search and rescue spokesman Russel Meiring told enca.com. Rescue personnel equipped both patients with harnesses and began to lower them to the awaiting paramedics, 300 meters below. Once on the ground, the occupants were taken to a local hospital for a checkout but neither was hurt. "They explained to paramedics that the only thing they could do was not to move as they were scared that the aircraft would fall,” said Meiring. That included trying to call for help, which only happened when a passerby called it in sometime in the afternoon.

(Source: avweb.com,  October 1, 2018)

Terry Baker, co-founder of the NetLetter scours the internet for aviation related Trivia and Travel Tips for you, our readers, to peruse.

Keep your AC Life app up to date.
You should have Version 220.1 (Sepember 20, 2018)
You can find detailed help for installation or general use of the AC Life app at acfamilynet.ca. 

Founded in 2005 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Orca Airways was a safety-driven, performance-based airline focused on continuous training, superior customer service, exemplary leadership and effective enterprise management.

Occupying 22,500 square feet of office and hangar space at Vancouver International Airport South Terminal, Orca Airways' fleet of more than 20 aircraft provided daily scheduled flights between Vancouver and Vancouver Island as well as charter and Medivac services throughout North America.

(Source: Wikipedia)

Here we have this timetable (from the collection of David Zekria).

Effective April 30, 2018 Orca Airways Ltd. has ceased operations.

Passengers are being rebooked on Pacific Coastal Airlines.

(Source: www.pacificcoastal.com/orca-airways).

Sunny Winter Interline Event in the Holy Land.

February 6 - 13, 2019

The Interline Club of Israel is pleased to invite all Interline club members to visit Israel in winter time. Stay and visit Jerusalem Old & New city, Dead Sea, Nazareth, the Sea of Galilee, Haifa, Acre & many other sites.

Cost: $1,139.00 USD per person in a double/twin room. Single supplement: $578.00 USD
WACA fee: $20.00 USD per person.

Deadline: January 15, 2019.Full details on the www.waca.org