Air Canada has been around for over 80 years. It’s Canada’s largest airline serving nearly 220 airports around the world. Despite its long-standing history, it has not always been a smooth road for Air Canada. Almost a decade ago, the airline was nearly bankrupt.
However, a decade later, the airline is on a tremendous growth that cannot go unnoticed. The below article provides a rundown of some of the factors that have led to Air Canada’s success.
Quick thinking
We all know that the COVID-19 pandemic has not been kind to the airline industry. Due to travel restrictions, passenger flights became restricted, thereby shrinking airlines’ revenues. However, in a bid to sail through the pandemic, Air Canada increased its capacity for cargo transport to diversify its revenue streams.
The airline became among the first to modify its planes to carry cargo twice their regular capacity. How so? The airline embarked on removing seats, creating additional loading zones.
Amid all the coronavirus doom, Air Canada can pride itself for phenomenal success in cargo transport. These efforts were recognized in the airline’s latest financial reports, which recorded a 52 percent increase in cargo transport revenue.
Again, since 2010, the airline has placed a $12 billion capital expenditure program to advance the customer’s traveling experience continuously. Such forward-thinking has been pivotal in elevating the airline to new horizons.
Customer-centric attitude
All that Air Canada does is to enhance the customer’s experience. And one way it does this is by pursuing alternative ways to ensure safety and convenience in delivering its services.
For instance, early on in the year, the company became the first airline in Canada to introduce PayPal as a payment option when purchasing tickets online. This way, the company simplified the ticket purchasing process to over 300 million users of PayPal.
Again, to wow customers, the airline became the first in Canada to offer in-seat WIFI access on some of its flights. Such transformative and customer-focused thinking propels the airline to higher heights in the airline industry.
Corporate Governance
In modern management, we all know how vital corporate governance is. Many companies, even those with a solid financial background, have crumbled because of unscrupulous governance.
Air Canada prides itself on one of the best in class corporate governance structures in Canada. Headed by the CEO, Calin Rovinescu, the airline’s corporate governance is vital in deterring mismanagement, mitigating risks, and protecting stakeholders’ interests.
Strong balance sheet
The airline industry is operationally intensive. To succeed, you need to maintain a strong liquidity position. Again, liquidity’s criticality cannot be stressed enough amid the pandemic’s economic extremities that have hit airlines hard.
Air Canada recorded unrestricted liquidity of $9.12 billion in the latest financial reports of 30 June 2020. Even with the coronavirus’s unprecedented effects, the airline’s management initiated corrective measures to preserve liquidity.
Without a strong balance sheet, Air Canada would just be another airline.
To sum it all
Even though Air Canada faces challenges innate to the airline industry, its cumulative success over the years ensures it bounces quickly. Its success story is an excellent example to be emulated by other airlines that would want to shorten their road to victory.
