THE TAKEOVER of former rival Canadian Airlines earlier this year may have turned Air Canada into the 10th-largest airline in the world - but there's a lot more to come.
Management of the Montreal-based carrier has unveiled ambitious expansion plans for the coming years. Besides boosting trans-border flights to the US, Air Canada wants to enlarge its international route network.
It has targeted 10 new destinations in Asia, Europe, the Middle East and Latin America. The carrier wants to fly to Shanghai, Singapore and Manila, Cairo and Beirut, Madrid, Brussels and Dublin, Caracas and Santiago.
Robert Milton, the airline's CEO, has expressed hopes that some of these points will be added to the network this year. But to launch the services, AC needs a lot of new aircraft. It is taking delivery of six second-hand Boeing 767-300s, but those are earmarked for frequency upgrades and for new services to Sydney and Amsterdam, which will be started in July.
The long-term expansion plan calls for about 150 new aircraft, which will add up to US$1.7 billion or more, Milton said.
"Lack of equipment is our biggest problem at the moment," said Claude Morin, the airline's vice president of cargo. "We could launch 10 new routes today if we had the planes."
Most interesting for the air cargo industry is the fact that the acquisitions will probably include freighter aircraft. Morin said that the takeover of Canadian has given AC traffic rights to operate freighters across the Pacific.
He also sees scope for all-cargo flights to Latin America, particularly to Brazil, which is showing strong economic recovery. Mexico would also make sense, if those services could be connected to Europe, he added.
Morin envisages a fleet of five to eight freighters. "Let's not kid ourselves. Canada can't afford an airline with 15 freighters," he said. Management will decide whether or not to go ahead with the freighter plans by the end of the year.
Canadian shippers and forwarders would certainly welcome such a move. They have complained for years that the Canadian market lacks freighter capacity.
KAL and Cathay are the only transpacific carriers that slot B747Fs through Toronto and Vancouver, but CX's flights only operate on the westbound leg, coming up from Los Angeles.
John O'Brien, airfreight director of the Canadian International Freight Forwarders Association, said he'd love to see a Canadian carrier operating freighters on international routes, but wondered if the strategy is viable, given that imports into Canada far outstrip air exports.