Air Canada tries to cut fuel bills by stripping paint from planes
Air Canada has found a new, unlikely target in its bid to lighten its planes and pare fuel expenses: paint.
In a memo distributed to employees yesterday, Air Canada parent company ACE Aviation Holdings Ltd. said its paint shop in Toronto is stripping primer and paint from one of its Boeing 767 jets. The plane will then be polished and buffed to give its aluminum coating a shiny finish.
“ The aircraft will keep its Air Canada logo and the new tail design,” the airline said in its memo. “ The removal of primer and paint reduces the aircraft’s weight by approximately 360 pounds, which translates into fuel savings of more than $ 24,000 per year for each aircraft.”
Based on Air Canada’s evaluation of the paint-free plane’s performance over the next few weeks, the company will determine if it will strip other 767s, Air Canada’s vice- president of maintenance Jon Turner said in the memo. ‰ High landing fees at Pearson causing ‘headaches’, D5
it learned that: ‰ Nearly two- thirds of Canadians didn’t know potatoes contain Vitamin C. ‰ One- third didn’t know potatoes contain fibre.
“ Potatoes are packed with nutrients,” nutrition expert Nancy Schwartz says in a McCain press release, noting that the root vegetable also contains potassium and iron. She’s referring to a small potato with its skin on. What happens to all those nutrients once the potato is chopped, frozen and par- fried for delivery to the nearest supermarket? McCain said its oven-baked French fries still contain all those nutrients and are also free of trans fats, a recently suspected artery- clogging byproduct of the vegetable oil hydrogenation process. ‰ Two- thirds of those surveyed thought a serving of oven- baked fries contains more than 5 grams of fat, when the amount is actually 4 grams. ‰ Only one quarter knew an appropriate serving of oven- baked fries is just under 20 fries.
“ I believe that products like oven- baked fries can be definitely be part of a healthy, balanced diet,” said Schwartz. To reach its target audience, McCain has taken a highly targeted route. The first consumer ads appeared in national women’s magazines, such as Canadian Living, Chatelaine and Today’s Parent. The company also created a website, www. potatofacts. ca, where consumers can get nutrition information and recipes. As well, the company sent direct mail to more than 7,000 Canadian dietitians. And it partnered with its suppliers, Canadian farmers, to help spread the word.
“ Potatoes are delicious, low in fat and provide essential carbohydrates that we all need for energy. Some even consider them nature’s vitamin pill,” Ivan Noonan, general manager of the Prince Edward Island Potato Board, says in a McCain press release. “We’re delighted to partner with McCain Foods for the Potato Facts campaign.” The McCain campaign is remarkable for another reason. The privately held company is notoriously media shy. But McCauley said the company is taking a different tack under its new leader.
“ Things are changing,” said the 15- year veteran of the Florenceville, N. B.- based company. “We have a new worldwide president and chief executive officer, Dale Morrison. He’s providing a very different style of leadership. It’s very proactive. He believes the company needs to be engaged with consumers. He believes we have a very good story to tell about our products.”
Morrison, a McCain outsider, took on the job 18 months ago, not long after the death of founding chairman Harrison McCain. A 30- year veteran of the U. S. food industry, he spent the past three years as chief executive officer of Campbell Soup Co.
Sales at McCain peaked in 2003 at $ 6.4 billion but fell to $ 5.68 billion last year. The company blamed the relative strength of the Canadian dollar against currencies in the many countries where it operates, including the U. S.
However, McCauley said the company is starting to see an “ uptick” in its sales in Canada.
“ We continue to be very optimistic about the potato,” he said. The annual sales figure is the only financial information the family- owned firm makes publicly available. McCain, which employs 20,000 people in 55 plants on six continents, also makes frozen pizzas, other frozen vegetables, juices and prepared oven meals.