Amalgamate airlines

Re: Refunding airfares with tax dollars, Chris Selley, Nov. 10

Chris Selley excels at enumerating and highlighting the obnoxious behaviour airlines routinely foist on Canadians. And, it is not just the airlines. Airport authorities are able to bilk airlines with impunity, knowing that those exorbitant costs will be borne by powerless travellers.

But the solution Mr. Selley suggests, allowing foreign carriers to take over in Canada, is no panacea. Do we really want the Chinese and Russian governments controlling our transportation system? Or, will we be content with service from American Airlines, which is in worse financial straits than Air Canada? Can we not remember how fortunate we were that our banks were self-sustaining when the Great Recession hit in 2008?

Perhaps it is time for Air Canada and WestJet to figure out a basis for amalgamation that the government could accept and in the process, to pass on as much as possible of current airline losses to airline shareholders whose job it is to accept the risk of unforeseen events. If the capital of those airlines is insufficient to allow one viable company to be made out of two, then and only then would passengers have to forego the refunds they are owed.

Government's job in all of this would be to fashion rules for the resulting monopoly that would protect future travellers from the perils of doing business with inadequately capitalized airlines, which, it appears is the norm worldwide. Ideally, the government of Canada's financial contribution to this arrangement should be commensurate with the capital cost of servicing remote, unprofitable routes inside Canada. Calin Rovinescu, CEO at Air Canada, has announced his impending retirement. The government of Canada should seize the opportunity to engage his services to help sort out this mess as soon as his obligations to Air Canada cease.

Patrick Cowan, Toronto