Aviation Memorabilia Newsletter

1987 - Air Alliance, formed as Air Canada's regional carrier in Québec, commenced operation. It served Montreal, Ottawa, Québec City and Bagotville until 1999, when it was absorbed into Air Nova.

2000 - April 3 - Inaugural service between Toronto and Mexico City.

On April 25, 2018, a new group was set up in Facebook named 'Air Canada Family (ACF)'. August 17, 2018 the name was changed to 'Air Canada Family Friends (ACFF)'.

The group is run by Ann Harper and Randy Moore, well-known, trustworthy and reliable retirees of Air Canada. It has no affiliation with Air Canada. Present membership totals 1,500+.

You are invited to join this esteemed group of Air Canada Family Friends, fondly referred to as ACFF, in the advancement of a movement to mobilize our seniors and keep active colleagues informed.

You will be part of the guiding beliefs or ideals which characterize a community that seeks and shares 'The Happy Days' of our AC careers.

www.facebook.com/groups

Found in 'Horizons' magazine

Issue dated May 1999

The YYZ Blues win it!

This year, 1999, the ACRA System Hockey Tournament took place in Vancouver from March 1 to 4, with a total of 12 teams participating.

A strong Toronto "A" Division team started off the tournament with an 18 - 0 trouncing of Vancouver Maintenance. Followed by an 8 - 1 victory over Montreal in game two which advanced the team into the final with the Vancouver Pirates, which Toronto won 7-3.

Here we have the victorious Toronto Blues team, the 1999 "A" Division champions.

Front row, left to right: Gregg Fortushniok, Station Attendant; Steve Spears, Mechanic; Dan Geisel, Matt McGuffin, Jeff Pasma and Sal Difede, Station Attendants.

Back row, left to right: Don Habkirk, Station Attendant; Ryan Campbell and Pete Delazzer, Lead Station Attendants; Tom Campbell and Jim Deluca, Station Attendants; Pete Gastis, Lead
Station Attendant and Darren Roach, Station Attendant.

Bye Bye Bloor.

By Mary Manni, Day of Flight Coordinator, SOC, Toronto.

Before the employees of 130 Bloor Street, Toronto grabbed their bags and headed to the Air Canada Centre, they bid adieu to their 40-year-old home with a party-style Reservations rendezvous.

"Hollywood had the Oscars," says Mary Nizich, Manager, Customer Service, Toronto Reservations, "we had a 'Farewell to Bloor'."

Throughout the day, more than 300 active and retired employees chatted about old times and munched on finger food in the ever popular Club 130 lounge. For the last time, retirees took a walk around the offices.

Fifth floor farewell.

Employees on the fifth floor organized another midday soiree in the much used, but never abused, VP Conference Room. Amidst a room adorned with Trans-Canada Air Lines and Air Canada memorabilia, employees past and present reminisced over lunch.

Departments that have called Bloor Street home include Passenger Sales, National Sales, Corporate Communications, Corporate Sales, Sports Development, Law, City Sales Office, Yield Management, Message Edit, Customer Relations, Personnel, Sales Development and Communication, City Sales Office and Reservations.

"The move," Nizich says, "marked the end of an era and the start of a new beginning."

A story of a stripper!

B-767 C-GAUB fin# 601 c/n 22517, which, by 1999, had flown a total of 57,000 hours, was completely stripped of all its major parts - right down to its skin - for an H3 check.

Flight controls, landing gears, engines, galleys, seats were all removed. Then Montreal's Heavy Maintenance team went through the B-767 aircraft checking the wiring, replacing any corroded parts, painting the overhead bins, and restoring any defective equipment.

This check, which is conducted every six years, takes approximately 50 days to complete, and required the wide ranging expertise of 250 highly skilled employees, and costs over $1 million for the materials.

On hands and knees.

Remember when you were young (sigh..) and built tunnels in the snow? Crawling in them was exciting and fun.

Well, some Tech Ops employees crawl into tunnels for a living. Known as tank sealers, they wiggle into the fuel tanks in an aircraft's wing to repair the tanks.

Heavy Maintenance crew members, André Perkins and Michel Roy, developed the very special techniques needed to move around in such a confined space. They also built a fuel tank mock up. Perkins is pictured crawling through one that tests candidates who apply for a job as a tank sealer.

Issue dated July 1999

The RESIII Help desk and Database team enjoyed one of their last days at the Air Canada Centre in Montreal. 

Kneeling: Norm Curley, Database Coordinator; Lino Mancino, Field Support Coordinator; Nicole Gendron, Senior Database Coordinator; Gloria Poirier, RESIII Field Support and Database
Manager; Teresa Galasso, Senior Field Support Coordinator and Louise Jolicoeur, Lead Database Coordinator DCS.

Standing: Jean Forget, Database Coordinator; Louis Notte, Senior Database Coordinator; Tina Fiala and Yves Frédéric, Field Support Coordinators; Lucie Mauro-Doyle, Manager, Reservations Development System; Lucie Plante, Database Coordinator; Chantal Cantin, Lead Database Coordinator, Systems; Errol Allen, Senior Field Support Coordinator; Florida Yessaian, Field Support Coordinator; Pamela Bardo, Field Support Specialist; Marie-Lou Dubois, PNR Retrieval; Jane Harlow-Glover, Field Support Specialist.

Absent Jenny Acheson, Suzie Falardeau and Sandra Holmes, Senior Database Coordinators; Nancy Magher, Lead Database Coordinator CIS; Christine Séguin, Senior Field Support Coordinator; and Ron Hiscox, Field Support Specialist.

Issue dated August 1999

Latest A340 is in!

Late in the evening of June 28, 1999 our latest A340, fin #910, arrived in Montreal with some cargo revenue on board.

After going through pre-service modifications, it started service on July 1, 1999 at 17:00 on Rapidair. AC421 flew from Montreal to Toronto and then on to Zurich. Welcome to the Air Canada family!

Pictured here is Senior Vice President, International, Rupert Duchesne, kicking the tires to ensure they're full of hot air!