Several readers have asked about the instructions for downloading the AC Life App that had been posted on the AC Family web site.

Below is a link to a PDF document that readers may download and keep.

Please note a few important points:

• The APP is only available to Air Canada employees and retirees.
• Your username and password for the AC Aeronet site will be required to download the APP.
• The APP may only be installed on a mobile device; it cannot be installed on a desktop computer.

It's not necessasary to understand German to appreciate watching these two ladies preparing to pilot their Lufthansa Airbus A380 from Franfurt to Singapore.

Posted on YouTube by planestream

Alex Praglowski Avaition has uploaded a new YouTube video entitled "The Air Canada Fleet - 2019 and Beyond".

Click the image below to view the video. We recommend subscribing to Alex's channel; he regularly posts excellent content. 

We are incredibly honoured to announce that Air Canada has been voted Best Airline in North America at the 2019 Skytrax World Airline Awards for the 8th time in 10 years.

Also voted as World’s Best Business Class Lounge Dining, Best Business Class in North America, Best Airline Staff in Canada and Best Airline Cabin Cleanliness in North America.

(Source: Air Canada Communications, June 19, 2019 )

Also, Air Transat named World’s Best Leisure Airline for the second year in a row. 

Maybe these airlines should get together!

Issue November 1986.

A breath of fresh air.

At the beginning of the year 1986, Air Canada moved its international advertising account to Young & Rubicam.

With the change of agency came a decision to run an international advertising campaign designed to promote a single, consistent image for the airline in all its non-North American markets.

Above is the new international logo for the airline.

Issue dated October 1986.

Cricket season ends on a high note.

The Air Canada Everest Cricket Club team arrived in England oblivious of the rigors ahead. Getting down to business, Everest faced a powerful British Airways' team.

"We were easy victims, losing by 108 runs," said Hinsley, Everest President. "Oh well, there is always tomorrow". The next day saw Everest being hosted by the H.M.S. Cricket Club and another defeat.

The team members began to ask themselves as the excuses came tumbling out - bad turf wicket, jet lag, climate change, etc. However, the combination of some Everest players teaming up with some from London Heathrow (LHR) Cargo against the KLM club stemmed the tide of defeat, as LHR came out the winners.

All this was a prelude to the Air Canada annual cricket tournament at the Bedmont ground. Competing for the championship were LHR Cargo, the ACE Cricket Club of Montreal and the Commissary and Baggage teams along with Everest group.

Facing each other in the finals were LHR Cargo and Everest, "and, yes, once again, we lost," noted Hinsley who scored the most runs for his team while J. Oakley chalked up most wickets for LHR.

The LHR Cargo team is shown after the Everest Cup game.

Front row, from the left, are: C.Turner, G. Aitken, M. Hopkins, M. Hawkins and T. Welch.

Standing, from the left, are: S. O'Farrel, G. Smith, T. Bell, S. Woods and J. Oakley.

Issue dated June 1997.

Remember the Canadian Beanie caps?

“Yeah, we bad!”. Toronto Flight Attendants, from the left: Cynthia Cusimano, Eugenia Venchiarutti-Ambrose and Gabriella Tanner don the Canadian Beanie caps.

Paul Revere warns "Canadian is coming! Canadian is coming!" at the May 5, 1997 launch of our daily non-stop service between Vancouver and Boston.

The new A320 service represents the first non-stop flight by any airline in this market. In partnership with American Airlines, we now offer over 1,000 flights per day throughout Canada and the US.

Air Transat – Years of friendship

Near the end of my Air Canada career, I worked as a station expediter in YVR maintenance. My job was to order the parts required for the overnight maintenance crew when their shift started.

The Airbus A330 fleet (eight aircraft at the time) were rotated though Vancouver regularly; we had one of the fleet in the hangar every night.

Air Transat was the only other airline in Canada operating A330’s and we would often have to go to them to purchase (or borrow) parts that were not available in our own system. Their staff were always a pleasure to deal with and could not have been more helpful.

When I heard the news reports of Air Canada acquiring Air Transat, I was a little surprised at first, but it did seem like a natural occurrence. The two airlines have a long and friendly relationship.

Air Transat was founded in December 1986 by Francois Legault (the current Premier of Quebec) and a group of business partners.

I am quite sure that I will be corrected on this but, as I remember, they began operations with two former Air Canada L-1011’s, registrations C-FTNB and C-FTNC, that had been shared with Eastern Airlines.

These aircraft were close to twenty years old by the time Air Transat leased them and they remained in service until the early 2000’s.

Although L-1011’s were regarded as not being cost efficient for scheduled service, Air Transat managed to get a successful charter carrier started with a couple of them.

Additional references:

Air Transat at Wikipedia
Air Transat L-1011 fleet at Airfleets.net

Early Trans-Canada Air Lines historical events.

North Stars in service three years.

Trans-Canada Air Lines have been flying converted Lancasters, with accommodation for ten passengers, across the North Atlantic but on April 16, 1947 the first North Star landed at Heathrow to start a regular service four times a week with this new aircraft type.

The company intends to run the service at this frequency with five aircraft, but as more join the fleet, the frequency will increase to one each day in each direction. North Stars will gradually be introduced on routes across Canada, the Pacific, and to America.

(Source: flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1947/1947 - 0636.html)

Note, as advised by Ken Pickford:

TCA did not operate North Stars on Pacific routes. CPA operated their 4 Canadair C-4's (CP didn't use the North Star name) on their early trans-Pacific services to Australia, Japan and Hong Kong that began in 1949.

CP sold 3 of the 4 aircraft to TCA in 1952 (one was written off in a landing overrun into the water at Tokyo in 1950 with no fatalities or serious injuries).

For people who work with airlines, they are often travelling around the world and working odd shifts, unable to spend special days or holidays with their families.

But for this year's Father's Day, British Airways made sure some of those families could be together.

The airline staffed a flight from London to San Diego on Saturday with father-son and father-daughter teams — who all work for British Airways.

The loved ones got to work alongside each other up in the air, within the terminal and on the tarmac. None of the pairs had ever worked together before.

(Source: Inside Edition)

New Hampshire has installed what appears to be the first historical highway marker honoring computer programming, according to the Concord Monitor.

The new sign honors BASIC, Beginner’s All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code, a programming language that was invented at Dartmouth College in 1964.

(Source: The Verge)

A startup Canadian budget airline has decided to promote itself with a marketing slogan that might sum up the ultra low-cost carrier experience.

“Flying Sucks Less When You Pay Less” is how the self-described “rebellious” Canada Jetlines will try to lure customers away from the two already-established Canadian ULCCs (Swoop and Flair) and mainstream carriers WestJet and Air Canada. “Flying will still suck,” the airline said in a statement. “There’s not much anyone can do about man-spreading seatmates, or tiny toilet stalls. But it will suck less when you pay less.”

Jetlines said it wants to be “deliberately distinct” from mainstream carriers Air Canada and WestJet, but it’s adopting the same sort of Spirit Airlines business model that Swoop and Flair use, meaning the fare covers only the seat and seatbelt.

One major difference is that Jetlines will use A320 aircraft rather than the Boeing 737-800 and 900 series used by the others. The airline says it will start flying its first routes on Dec. 17.

(Source: avweb.com - June 23, 2019)

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

London Heathrow (LHR) invests more than $63 million to upgrade security equipment.

London Heathrow is investing £50 million ($63.5 million) in security-screening upgrades, meaning passengers will no longer be required to remove their liquids and laptops from their hand luggage.

(Source: enews.atwonline.com - June 10, 2019)