Air Canada, founded by the Canadian Parliament under the Trans-Canada Air Lines Act of April 10, 1937, is Canada’s flag carrier and the country’s largest airline in fleet size and passenger traffic. What was Air Canada called before? For over 28 years, it was known as Trans-Canada Air Lines before adopting its current name on January 1, 1965. The headquarters of Air Canada is located in the borough of Saint-Laurent in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. You get scheduled and charter flights for passengers and cargo to 207 destinations worldwide. It is a Star Alliance founder member. Toronto Pearson International Airport (YYZ), Montréal–Trudeau International Airport (YUL), and Vancouver International Airport (YVR) are Air Canada‘s major hubs.

History of Air Canada:

Trans-Canada Airlines (TCA) was established by federal legislation on April 10, 1936, as a subsidiary of the Canadian National Railway (CNR). It sowed the seeds of Passenger flights on September 1, 1937, with an Electra transporting two passengers and mail from Vancouver to Seattle for a $14.20 round trip, and TCA recruited its first flight attendants on July 1, 1938, and reached around 500 people by January 1940. Air Canada became the world’s first airline to deploy a computer reservation system with remote terminals, creating the ReserVec in 1953. In 1964, an Act of Parliament changed the airline’s name from Trans-Canada Air Lines to Air Canada. In the late 1970s, Air Canada became an independent Crown company. Air Canada purchased Canadian Airlines, the country’s second-biggest airline, in January 2001.

Fall and Growth

Air Canada ran into financial turmoil in the early 1990’s as the airline sector plummeted in the aftermath of the Persian Gulf War. In response, the airline reorganized management by appointing Hollis L. Harris, a former Delta Air Lines executive. In 1992, Harris reorganized the airline’s operations, cut managerial jobs, relocated the corporate headquarters to Dorval Airport, and sold the enRoute card business to Diners Club. The new travel business ideas and the changes by the new CEO made profits scoring high again by 1994. The question “what is the history of air travel by Air Canada?” was quickly a topic to read for the Airline Industries. Air Canada was the first airline to install personal seat back entertainment systems on smaller jet aircraft for short-haul flights in 2005. It was the first airline in North America to enact 2D barcode scanning, introducing 2D barcodes on-boarding cards and itinerary receipts in 2006 and electronic boarding passes enabling mobile check-in for passengers using a cellular phone or smartphone in 2007. It debuted mobile applications for Apple and Blackberry smartphones in 2009, allowing travelers to receive electronic boarding cards and follow flight information in real-time, among other things.

Subsidiaries

Air Canada Rouge is a low-cost airline that operates as its subsidiary. The airline commenced operations on July 1, 2013, after it was founded in December 2012. The first destination was Athens, Greece, from Toronto and Montreal, as part of the Air Canada Leisure Group, which aims to compete more effectively in the leisure and vacation travel market with Air Transat, Sunwing, and WestJet, primarily operating routes to Europe, the Caribbean, and the United States. It owned a fleet of four aircraft, two Airbus A319s and two Boeing 767s, transferred from the parent company at the time of its start. Jazz Aviation conducts feeder flights for Air Canada under the brand name Air Canada Express. They generally connect smaller cities to their domestic hub airports and focal cities. Still, they also provide some point-to-point and international (United States) services, such as direct service from Toronto (YYZ) to Boston (BOS).

Routes Covered

In 1994, the carrier was authorized route access to fly from Canada to the new Kansai Airport in Osaka, Japan. It was later expanded to service 220 locations across six continents through 2019. Being a founding member of the Star Alliance, it operates in a network comprising 26 other airlines from almost 200 countries. So if you want to go someplace, chances are Air Canada can get you there. There are nonstop flights to 57 cities in the United States and 91 more in Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean, Central and South America, Europe, Asia, and Africa. Much of its routes were canceled or stopped due to Covid-19, but the Air Canada Flight bookings are restarting in 2021.

Fleet Transformation

Transcontinental flights began on April 1, 1939, courtesy of 18 Lockheed aircraft. On October 31, 2004, the final Air Canada Boeing 747 aircraft from Frankfurt landed in Toronto as AC873, bringing an end to 33 years of 747 operations, which the Airbus A340 fleet replaced. The fleet includes 162 aircraft, all of which are Airbus or Boeing, as of June 2021. It comprises 19 Boeing 777-300ER (77W), 6 Boeing 777-200LR (77L), 16 Airbus A330-300 (333), 29 Boeing 787-9 (789), 8 Boeing 787-8 (788), 15 Airbus A321-200 (321), 24 Boeing 737 MAX 8 (7M8), 22 Airbus A220-300 (223), and 18 Airbus A320- (320) planes. Air Canada Jetz has four Airbus A319-100 (319) planes. It flies 25 Embraer E175 (E75), 35 Mitsubishi CRJ900 (CR9), 15 Mitsubishi CRJ200 (CRJ), 44 De Havilland Dash 8-400 (DH4), and 20 De Havilland Dash 8-300 (DH3) aircraft under its regional partner Jazz. Air Canada Rouge has fourteen A321-200 (321), five A320-200 (320), and twenty A319-100 (319) Airbuses.

Air Travel Interesting Facts About Air Canada

The Air Canada flight booking can be made in two versions of its Website: one for the United States and one for Canada. You can find everything on the Canadian Website in French and English, while everything on the US Website will be in English. It includes special deals for each that the other does not have. All costs are generally included in its one-way prices displayed online. Because the fares are tax-inclusive, one must pay the displayed amount. Air Canada, Air Canada Rouge, and Air Canada Express are limited to one regular bag and one personal item. I hope you get your best flights soon as Air Canada booking restarts.