THE BATTLE FOR AIR CANADA: WILL GLOBAL ALLIANCES DOMINATE DOMESTIC POLICY?

For the past several months, newspapers around the world have carried stories about the struggle for control of the Canadian airline industry. The proposal by Onex Corporation to acquire Air Canada and Canadian Airlines triggered a competing offer by Air Canada to buy up Canadian Airlines. On the surface, this struggle would appear to be a purely domestic matter, in as much as the principals are all Canadian corporations. However, American Airlines, a member of the Oneworld alliance, served as a silent partner in the Onex offer. Similarly, Air Canada's offer was backed by two of its Star Alliance partners, United Airlines and Lufthansa. The goal of this paper is to examine the growing impact of global aero politics and global alliances in shaping competition in the Canadian airline industry. The paper examines the interaction between Canadian domestic, international, and transborder aviation policies and their impact on the viability of Canadian-flag carriers. It then discusses the role of global alliances in triggering this takeover battle. The paper concludes by examining how the growth of global alliances is constraining the policy options available to domestic policy makers using the battle of Air Canada as a case study.

• Corporate Authors:

  Transportation Research Forum

  One Farragut Square South, Suite 500
  Washington, DC  United States  20006-4003
• Authors:
  • Kaduck, Ramond J
  • Pustay, Michael W
• Conference:
  • Proceedings of the 42nd Annual Meeting of the Transportation Research Forum
  • Location: Annapolis, Maryland
  • Date: 2000-11-29 to 2000-12-1
• Publication Date: 2000

Language

• English

Media Info

• Features: References;
• Pagination: p. 501-512

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Airlines; Cabotage; Carriers; Control; Domestic transportation; Policy making; Politics; Strategic alliances
• Identifier Terms: Air Canada
• Geographic Terms: Canada
• Subject Areas: Aviation; Policy;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00804792
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Jan 11 2001 12:00AM