23 Jul 10 Air Canada

Air Canada began as Trans-Canada Airlines, in Sep,’37. The first flight of Air Canada was on a Lockheed L-10A, from Vancouver to Seattle, carrying mail and only two passengers. It was a mere 50 minutes flight. The airline developed fast, and by’64, Trans-Canada Airlines became Canada’s national airline. At that time, it was renamed as Air Canada. The airline became private in the year’89. Air Canada also acquired the Canadian Airlines International, around the same time.

Today, Air Canada is more than 70 years old, and is largest passenger-service airline in Canada. Every year, it carries nearly 32 million passengers to 170 places across the globe. Air Canada also ranks–th among the airlines, across the world.

Air Canada believes that travel should be convenient for its customers and therefore it is the only airline that offer flight passes. Flight passes allow the passenger to manage their travel online. These flight passes can be obtained either in the form of pre-purchased flight credits or a monthly subscription that provides you with unlimited flights in certain sectors.

The airline is one of the best in the world, and this is the feedback from none other than Air Canada’s own customers. Air Canada was given the title of the ‘Best Airline in North America’ by a survey that was conducted from August 2006 and June 2007. The Airline Industry Achievement Award was also presented to the airline in 2007 for being a market leader. Air Canada already has several ‘Best Airline in Canada and North America’ under its belt, awarded by readers of various travel magazines.

While Air Canada works hard to keep their passengers happy and satisfied, they work just as hard to do their bit for preserving the environment. They have already started this process by spending billions and investing in new aircrafts that are energy efficient. Air Canada has managed to reduce the emission intensity of their flights by 28%. They also have an ambitious target of improving their fuel efficiency by 25% by the year 2020.

Air Canada also launched green programs in-house and recycling programs on board. They teamed up with an interesting program called ‘zerofootprint’. This program allows passengers to voluntarily offset the carbon emissions from the flight they have taken by participating in the reforestation program in Canada.

Though Air Canada is counted among the largest airlines in the world, yet it seeks the help of the other airlines to offer an extensive network of worldwide destinations to its passengers.

Graham McKenzie is the content syndication coordinator for South Arica?s leading Flight comparison & Booking portal, which includes Alitalia Airlines amongst others.

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