As President and CEO of Canada's largest and most influential airline, Robert Milton has presided over the most tumultuous period of the airline industry's history. He gives us his forthright, brutally honest views about the challenges of his job, as well as his vision for Air Canada as it restructures itself into a cost-competitive, full-service airline. Milton goes behind the boardroom doors to reveal the truth about events in the past decade. In addition, Milton explains what drives his passion for this business and offers a fascinating glimpse into the workings of a major airline. Milton is admired by many as an industry visionary and brilliant airline strategist, and his impact on the international airline industry has been significant. This book is sure to appeal to anyone interested in what makes the man tick or in what the future holds for Air Canada.
No Canadian company today holds a higher profile than Air Canada; few CEOs possess the recognition factor of its chief, Robert Milton. But in 2003, their notoriety is for all the wrong reasons: in less than four years under Milton's command, Air Canada has gone from unrivalled industry giant to a wounded behemoth seeking bankruptcy protection. Was it mismanagement, government interference, a radically changed global environment, or just plain bad luck that brought down Canada's national flag carrier? Air Monopoly answers the question with a penetrating examination of a glamorous, high-risk business that attracts more than its share of dreamers and egotists. Milton, a life-long aviation enthusiast, took the controls at Air Canada at age thirty-nine in 1999. Within weeks he was battling a hostile takeover bid by investor Gerry Schwartz who intended to merge Air Canada with its chief competitor, Canadian Airlines. After a legal, political, and public-relations free-for-all, it was Milton who took over Canadian, then merged the two into a cumbersome monopoly that left cabinet ministers uneasy, consumers fuming, and ambitious small competitors eager to challenge Air Canada's supremacy. Four scrappy upstarts would disappear in the attempt to wrest market share from a dominant carrier prepared to engage in cutthroat tactics against any competition. When a fifth - WestJet - started to make real gains, Milton diversified his brand in an attempt to be all things to all travellers. Then came a global economic downturn, the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, andwars in Afghanistan and Iraq, events that altered the aviation industry forever. Milton managed Air Canada through its most serious operational crisis ever, but since then questionable decisions, bad timing, and hubris have sent Air Canada into a tailspin, threatening its very existence.
Begun as a social experiment in 1937, Air Canada has evolved into one of the world's greatest airlines, an integral part of this country's social fabric. During the course of its 75-year history, the airline was privatized, fought off a hostile takeover, merged with arch-rival Canadian Airlines, and touched countless lives. This is its story.
Whether you are an aviation enthusiast, history buff, or air traveller, don't miss the third in a series of photo essays on aviation in Canada, covering almost 100 years of flight by Canadians. Dramatic visuals accompany each step of aviation's advances, from Canada's first military aircraft to the Harvard II, from the earliest bush planes to the Bombardier Global Express. This comprehensive history showcases 50 aircraft. Whether famous or forgotten, all were designed, built, and/or flown by Canadians.
In Taking the Air, Paul Kopas takes a comprehensive approach to the policy aspects of the management of parks and protected areas. He scrutinizes the policy-making process for national parks since the mid-1950s and interrogates the rationale and policies that have governed their administration. He argues that national parks and park policy reflect not only environmental concerns but also the political and social attitudes of bureaucrats, citizens, interest groups, Aboriginal peoples, and legal authorities. He explores how the goals of each group have been shaped by the historical context of park policy, influencing the shape and weight of their contributions.
Italy is a country synonymous with style and beauty in all aspects of life: the rich history of Rome, Renaissance art of Florence, graceful canals of Venice, high fashion of Milan, signature pasta alla bolognese of Bologna, colorful architecture of Portofino and winking blue waters of Capri and the Amalfi Coast, among many others. Italians themselves live effortlessly amid all this splendor, knowing instinctively just the type of outfit to throw on, design element to balance, or delectable ingredient to add.
The proportions of the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan were huge. At its peak, the plan was graduating over 3,000 aircrew a month from 107 training schools across Canada. In total, graduates numbered more than 130,000. This enormous war effort made Canada WWII's "aerodrome of democracy." Full of personal anecdotes, "Wings For Victory is the story of the BCATP and of the politicians who negotiated it into existence, of the officers and airmen of the RCAF and the RAF, and of the many civilians who made it work day by day. Above all, it is the story of the young men who entered the scheme as clerks and farmers, students and salesmen, and graduated as pilots, navigators, air gunners, air bombers, and flight engineers. In the late 1930s, mindful of the need to play an important role in the looming war, Canadian politicians conceived of a plan that would entail a major commitment to the war effort yet keep the country's young men at home and avoid the horrendous loss of Canadian lives experienced on the ground in WWI. The British Commonwealth Air training Plan was born, whereby young recruits from Great Britain, Australia, and New Zealand would join their Canadian counterparts in training schools to be set up across the country. Here they would be trained to fight the battles of the new war, in the air. Canada was the ideal location, far enough away from the threat of air raids, and with plenty of wide open space for the business of building airfields and teaching men to fly. In a huge, country-wide mobilization of personnel and resources, training facilities were hastily erected from Vancouver to Charlottetown. And when young recruits from around the globe started pouringinto the scores of towns and villages across the map selected as sites for the BCATP, communities were turned upside down. Spencer Dunmore follows these raw young recruits through the lengthy selection process and training regimen that awaited them so far from home. Many wouldn't make it. A large number "washed out," finding themselves no longer considered pilot material. The training process would injure some and kill some more. A handful would discover that, although they had always dreamed of flying, they loathed and feared the reality of it. But masses of them were eventually successful and were shipped to Europe, where they put their Canadian training to the ultimate test, winning the war in the air.
Recounts the remarkable story of Air Canada Flight 143, which lost all power at 41,000 feet when it ran out of fuel, leaving pilot Bob Pearson the near-impossible task of landing it safely