Allegra Sloman's blog

added later: Jacobin article about just how shitty Air Canada and other airlines have been to their employees.

THIS IS A LETTER FROM AIR CANADA TO ITS CUSTOMERS FROM THE END OF JUNE 2022

My comments in red 

At Air Canada, we know how important travel plans are. This is even more the case today when many are taking their first trip in years following the pandemic. Whether for long-anticipated vacations, visits with relatives and friends, or for business, we are grateful and recognize our responsibility when people like you entrust your travel to our airline.

is this an apology? this sounds like an apology

Regrettably, things are not business as usual in our industry globally, there is no shit here, whatsoever, Sherlock, to be sampled or detected, and this is affecting our operations and our ability to serve you with our normal standards of care. Sample previous tagline “Air Canada, we’re not happy til you’re not.” The COVID-19 pandemic brought the world air transport system to a halt in early 2020. Now, after more than two years, global travel is resurgent, and people are returning to flying at a rate never seen in our industry. BECAUSE LIKE THE IRRESPONSIBLE SHITHEELS RUNNING PUBLIC HEALTH ACROSS THE GLOBE THEY’RE OF THE BELIEF WE CAN GO BACK TO JAMMING OURSELVES IN PRESSURIZED INFECTIOUS DISEASE CONTAINERS AMONG PEOPLE WHO ARE RICH ENOUGH TO TRAVEL AND YET SOMEHOW HAVE DECIDED THAT THE MICROBIAL WORLD HAS NO IMPACT ON US. Wait until the flight where Monkeypox, Cholera, giardia, COVID, and hemorrhagic fever all come out to play. you’ll be shitting through the roots of your eyebrow hair and praying for sweet death

This surge in travel has created unprecedented and unforeseen strains on all aspects of the global aviation system. I’m so worried about the baggage retrieval system at Heathrow I mean, have you seen it? bags ERRYWHERE. same like hundreds of other airports. Around the world, there are recurring incidents of flight delays and airport congestion, resulting from a complex array of persistent factors impacting airlines and our partners in the aviation ecosystem. He’s not wrong and that’s an interesting way of putting it. But governments ERRYWHERE dropped the mask mandate and he doesn’t fucking mention that. Similar effects are being seen in other industries too, where companies and suppliers are struggling to restart, unclog supply chains and meet pent-up demand. Sadly, the fact that airports are pest holes means that the people who WORK THERE GET COVID, AND PEOPLE WHO GET COVID aren’t supposed to work – but they do – and at the same time are really encouraged by the company not to stay home, which means we get the maximal mixing of variants in airports while not knowing who’s infectious while mask mandates drop, a less than ideal situation for both travellers and staff.

At Air Canada, we anticipated many of these factors and began taking tangible action during the depth of the pandemic to be ready for a rapid restart. Yet, despite detailed and careful planning, the largest and fastest scale of hiring in our history, while basically telling those people they weren’t getting a raise, better benefits, better working conditions or better management, so that they were returning to work after two years of income stoppage to a stagnant paycheque while housing, fuel and food prices soar so maybe a little less use of the self congratulatory language bub as well as investments in aircraft and equipment, it is now clear that Air Canada’s operations too have been disrupted by the industry’s complex and unavoidable challenges. It’s the other guys what done it and we could keep busting ass but something terrible/interesting/black swan happened. This whole shivaree of shit corresponded to the fucking Russians booting fuel costs through the troposphere so they’re now going to make a virtue of necessity, sacrifice the employees ONCE-A-FUCKING-GAIN. YOU WILL NOTE that none of these ‘challenges’ mentions that the people who just got hired back will in large numbers be laid off again while the chaos and kinks work their way through the system. Sadly for Air Canada, a lot of people are just going to say fuck it and not come back to the company when the economy comes back, and I see many very troubling signs in the economy that it won’t be coming back at all, not for anyone who doesn’t have at least 50 million dollars’ worth of insulation, including real property, not fucking NFTs. The result has been flight cancellations and customer service shortfalls on our part that we would never have intended for our customers or for our employees, and for which we sincerely apologize.

In response, we took a number of important steps, including introducing flexible ticket policies, new travel self-management tools, improvements to airport operations, as well adjustments to our schedule – all to strengthen operational resiliency and to give customers more options. However, to bring about the level of operational stability we need, with reluctance, we are now making meaningful reductions to our schedule in July and August in order to reduce passenger volumes and flows to a level we believe the air transport system can accommodate. Yikes

This was not an easy decision, as it will result in additional flight cancellations that will have a negative impact on some customers. But doing this in advance allows affected customers to take time to make other arrangements in an orderly manner, rather than have their travel disrupted shortly before or during their journey, with few alternatives available. It will also enable us to more reliably serve all customers. If you say so, I’m staying out of the expensive disease canisters for the time being.

I can assure you Air Canada is also working in close cooperation with airports, government, and its third-party service providers, who all are striving to return our industry to pre-pandemic standards of operation. One awkward shift in the China Sea, maybe a dustup between China and US vessels, or a full scale attack on Taiwan when ‘none are looking’; one small nuke in Europe as Putin’s fury is unleashed, and the global travel industry will collapse as the banks who’ve loaned money to the airlines start calling those loans when their cash flows collapse. Pre pandemic is GONE. it has to be understood. It’s gone and it’s not coming back. Things are operating at zero bone.

We are convinced these changes will bring about the improvements we have targeted. But to set expectations, it should also be understood the real benefits of this action will take time and be felt only gradually as the industry regains the reliability and robustness it had attained prior to the pandemic. You mean you’re finally looking further ahead than this quarter? AMAZEBALLS. Too late chuckles.

On behalf of all of us at Air Canada, please accept my sincere apologies for any disruption you have experienced or may experience with your travel plans during this unprecedented period. I also assure you that we very clearly see the challenges at hand, that we are taking action, and that we are confident we have the strategy to address them. This is our company’s chief focus at every level.

Thank you for your patience and understanding. We certainly look forward to future opportunities to serve you and regain your loyalty at a time when we can better demonstrate our commitment to taking good care of customers such as yourself.

Sincerely,

Michael Rousseau
President and Chief Executive Officer

Air Canada

further comments

This is the correction, happening right in front of us. They say it’s just for the summer, but if they can PLAN TO do that in the high season, there’s nothing stopping them from doing it the rest of the year.

anyway, I’ve said it before. I’m not flying anywhere unless minimal conditions are met, including I fly first class, I don’t pay for it, carbon offset sufficient to cover is purchased and I don’t have to come back for at least two weeks. OR it’s not a jet flight and regional. Or it’s a helicopter. Or air ambulance. Anyway, it’s time to book that train ride I’ve always dreamed of; maybe a year out.