Tango faces industry, customer criticism Last Updated Mon Jan 14 16:28:49 2002 CALGARY - Air Canada's controversial discount airline, Tango, says it will go ahead with plans to expand operations, despite mixed reviews from both travellers and industry professionals. The airline took flight two months ago, just days before the demise of another discount airline, Canada 3000. During that period, travel agents confirm Tango flights were routinely cancelled, and that passengers were re-booked on other Air Canada flights for the same price. A spokesperson for Air Canada says that works well for Tango passengers. "That's one of the advantages of booking Tango, is that we do have the ability to protect our customers on a mainline Air Canada flight if necessary," said Angela Mah. But while some customers don't mind the adjustment, other customers find the changes inconvenient. Michelle Malone and her father booked a 6:00 a.m. Tango flight from Calgary to Ottawa days before Christmas. Malone says that Air Canada notified them a few weeks before their departure that their Tango flight had been cancelled, and their new flight would now leave Calgary at 1:00 a.m. Malone said she was not impressed with the change. "It was basically, we were flying at their convenience, and not ours," said Malone. Tango a 'phantom airline' Clive Beddoe, the head of competing airline WestJet agrees with Malone. He says no other airline could get away with such a practice, and promises his company will monitor Tango's activities before deciding whether to complain to the competition bureau. "Tango is something of a phantom airline. It is there one day and not the next, it's there for some flights and not the next, people are sold onto it when there's competition, when there's no competition it disappears," said Beddoe. However, Air Canada says Tango is going ahead with expansion plans due to overwhelming demand. The new destinations include Regina/Saskatoon, Thunder Bay and St. John's, along with increased flights to other areas across the country in the summer. Written by CBC News Online staff The owner of Roger's Trinbago Site: Roj (Roger James) *************************************************** Trinbago site: http://www.tntisland.com ICQ: ICQ # 15836110 ICQ Pager: mailto:15836110@pager.icq.com escape email #!1 mailto:ejames@escape.ca yahoo email #2: mailto:triniroj@yahoo.com Yahoo Pager: triniroj Caribbean Brass & Soca Connection Group on Yahoo: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/caribsocabrass Caribbean Brass & Soca Connection Club Website http://www.tntisland.com/caribbeansocabrassconnection/ ******************************************************* Steel Expressions Orch http://www.escape.ca/~ejames/se/ email #1: mailto:steelexpressions@yahoo.com email #2: mailto:steelexpressions@home.com ******************************************************* The Trinbago Site of the Week: (Traffik) http://www.cariwaksoca.com/trafik.htm (Caribbean Traffik Jam) courtesy of Roj Trinbago Website & TnT Web Directory Roj's Trinbago Website: http://www.tntisland.com TnT Web Directory: http://195.224.187.36/ *********************************************************