When you look at the airline industry over the years, the changes are interesting. Westjet has bought Sunwing and will wind it down and integrate it into Westjet later this year. Westjet has come a long way since its inception 30 years ago in 1994. Who remembers what Air Canada was called before it became Air Canada in 1965? It was Trans Canada Airlines and was owned by the government of Canada, essentially us. So was Air Canada until it became fully privatized in 1989. Who remembers Canadian Pacific Airlines, CP Air? It operated until 1987. How about Pacific Western Airlines, PWA? In the mid-1980’s it was the largest airline in Western Canada and it bought CP Air in 1987 to form Canadian Airlines. Does the name Wardair ring a bell? It provided international flights as well as domestic flights in some provinces until 1989 when it folded into Canadian Airlines. Then Air Canada acquired Canadian Airlines in January of 2000. The saga of airlines in Canada has seen the rise and fall over the decades of regional carriers such as Time Air in Alberta, Air Manitoba, Air Ontario, BC Airlines, Air Sask which merged with Athabasca Airways to form Transwest Air which, in 2021 along with Westwind Aviation, became Rise air. The list goes on and over the years as the saying goes, sometime you couldn’t tell the players without a program.
That’s Coffeetalk. I’m Vic Dubois.