Collenette lectures Air Canada on big losses Last Updated Thu Feb 7 19:00:12 2002 OTTAWA - Air Canada must give up more of its share of the country's domestic service, Transport Minister David Collenette said Thursday. His warning came after the company announced a $1.25 billion loss for 2001, its worst performance since 1992. The minister criticized the company for expanding its domestic service instead of exploring possible international routes. "I would have hoped that they would have come to the conclusion that it is an international powerhouse, which it is, a transborder powerhouse, which it is, and a domestic airline that serves the full-service market on long-haul routes in Canada," Collenette said. "Don't try to hammer every little guy on the block to death, because we need competition." The carrier, which has a virtual monopoly in Canada, must pass on some secondary markets to competitors, according to the minister. If it doesn't, the government will intervene. "Why stay on money-losing routes?" Collenette asked outside the House Commons. "Why not rationalize your route structure? Because if you don't, we're going to do it for you," the minister added. "We have to get the (Air Canada) market share down." Collenette said he likes the company's proposal to expand into the United States, but expressed doubts that the Americans will agree to an "open skies" deal. The low Canadian dollar would give Air Canada a big advantage, according to the minister. "The American carriers don't want Air Canada to come in there and really compete because they (Air Canada) are so good and the cost structure is lower," Collenette said. "The Americans are great at talking about a free market until it hits at home and they want to protect their market." Although the airline has cut costs recently, it hasn't been able to offset the drop in demand for seats. Its revenues fell 11 per cent, from $10.8 billion to $9.6 billion. "Air Canada's fourth quarter and full year performance reflect the extraordinarily difficult environment in which we and other comparable North American carriers were operating," chief executive Robert Milton said in a news release. The statement was issued before Collenette's criticism. "Like the rest of the international airline industry, we experienced an unprecedented decline in business travel due to the economic downturn along with high fuel prices. Then came the devastating impact of Sept. 11," Milton said. 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: (Revellers Mas Band) http://www.revellers.com/ (Trini Revellers Mas Band) courtesy of Roj Trinbago Website & TnT Web Directory Roj's Trinbago Website: http://www.tntisland.com TnT Web Directory: http://195.224.187.36/ *********************************************************