Air Canada has suspended more than 800 employees for not being fully vaccinated against COVID-19 in line with federal rules.
The vast majority of Air Canada’s 27,000 cabin crew, customer service agents and others have received both shots, chief executive Michael Rousseau said Tuesday.
“Our employees have done their part, with now over 96 per cent fully vaccinated,” he said on a conference call with investors. “The employees who are not vaccinated or do not have a medical or other permitted exemption have been put on unpaid leave.”
The layoffs are “across the company” rather than concentrated in any particular job, spokesperson Peter Fitzpatrick said in an email.
The proportions align with those at WestJet Airlines, where fewer than four per cent of workers — fewer than 300 out of 7,300 — are unvaccinated, the company said in an email.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced last month that as of Oct. 30, Ottawa would require federally regulated air, rail and shipping companies to establish mandatory vaccination policies for employees.
Leisure bookings have recovered, but not business travel
Air Canada said it sees hope on the horizon as revenues soared over 2020 levels last quarter amid stronger sales for winter, despite continuing to operate far below pre-pandemic capacity and at a loss of hundreds of millions of dollars.
Domestic leisure bookings have bounced back, prompting a recall of more than 10,000 laid-off employees since the start of the year — 6,500 of them since July. But business travel remains down across the board due in part to the persistence of remote work, executives said Tuesday.
COVID-19 travel: What’s changing for Canadians
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“We’re witnessing a strong rebound in VFR (visiting friends and relatives), and leisure traffic remains strong, specifically within North America, across the Atlantic and to sun destinations,” chief commercial officer Lucie Guillemette said on the conference call.
“We were pretty confident that come 2022 corporate Canada returns to their offices and business travel should return. But no doubt that for us, business has lagged a little bit.”
Revenue nearly tripled year over year to more than $2.1 billion in the quarter ended Sept. 30, beating expectations by more than 15 per cent, according to financial markets data firm Refinitiv. Capacity also increased by 87 per cent.
But revenue fell more than 60 per cent short of Air Canada’s third-quarter figures in 2019 while capacity remained two-thirds below, as COVID-19 fallout continues to dent carriers’ bottom lines.
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‘No textbook on this type of recovery’
“There’s no textbook on this type of recovery, or any in the history,” said Rousseau, who took over as CEO in February.
“There’s no doubt we’re very encouraged by what we see. And there’s no doubt that the length of the recovery has moved in from the consensus of 2025 to at least 2024 and maybe 2023.”
In its outlook, the Montreal-based airline said it plans to expand its fourth-quarter capacity by about 135 per cent compared with the same period in 2020. However, that capacity — calculated using an industry metric called available seat miles — will barely reach half the amount of its pre-pandemic level.
Net cash flow of $153 million was well above analyst expectations of cash burn of up to $460 million. It marked the first quarter Air Canada has enjoyed cash flow in the black since the onset of the pandemic.
Rousseau also stressed a record cargo performance of more than $1 billion so far this year. The carrier began to shift toward air freight last spring, converting several of its retired Boeing 767 jetliners to cargo aircraft.
With fewer flights and less freight being transported in the luggage compartments of passenger planes, the price of shipping cargo by air has increased. Other airlines such as American Airlines and United Airlines also began operating cargo-only last year, hoping to use the opportunity to stem their losses.
Rising fuel prices will impact recovery
Robert Kokonis, president of Toronto-based consulting firm AirTrav Inc., called Air Canada’s results “a tremendous source of optimism.”
However, rising fuel prices and the pace of business travel’s revival remain areas of anxiety.
“Many employees have not returned to the office, companies are continuing to make use of virtual conferencing tools, and air travel for inter-office business and international trips continues to be restricted,” Kokonis said in an email.
“At least in the short-term, these factors will suppress demand for corporate travel, which is traditionally the highest contributor to airline top lines.”
Air Canada’s share price closed up $1.01 or 4.4 per cent at $24.02 on Tuesday.
Air Canada reported a loss of $640 million in its third quarter compared. The loss amounted to $1.79 per diluted share last quarter compared with a loss of $685 million or $2.31 per diluted share a year earlier.
Analysts had expected a loss of $554.7 million, or $1.44 per diluted share, according to Refinitiv.
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump on Sunday named Brendan Carr, the senior Republican on the Federal Communications Commission, as the new chairman of the agency tasked with regulating broadcasting, telecommunications and broadband.
Carr is a longtime member of the commission and served previously as the FCC’s general counsel. He has been unanimously confirmed by the Senate three times and was nominated by both Trump and President Joe Biden to the commission.
The FCC is an independent agency that is overseen by Congress, but Trump has suggested he wanted to bring it under tighter White House control, in part to use the agency to punish TV networks that cover him in a way he doesn’t like.
Carr has of late embraced Trump’s ideas about social media and tech. Carr wrote a section devoted to the FCC in “ Project 2025,” a sweeping blueprint for gutting the federal workforce and dismantling federal agencies in a second Trump administration produced by the conservative Heritage Foundation.
Trump has claimed he doesn’t know anything about Project 2025, but many of its themes have aligned with his statements.
Carr said in a statement congratulating Trump on his win that he believed “the FCC will have an important role to play reining in Big Tech, ensuring that broadcasters operate in the public interest, and unleashing economic growth.”
“Commissioner Carr is a warrior for Free Speech, and has fought against the regulatory Lawfare that has stifled Americans’ Freedoms, and held back our Economy,” Trump said in a statement on Sunday. “He will end the regulatory onslaught that has been crippling America’s Job Creators and Innovators, and ensure that the FCC delivers for rural America.”
The five-person commission has a 3-2 Democratic majority until next year, when Trump gets to appoint a new member.
Also a prolific writer of op-eds, Carr wrote in an opinion piece for The Wall Street Journal last month decrying an FCC decision to revoke a federal award for Elon Musk’s satellite service, Starlink. He said the move couldn’t be explained “by any objective application of the facts, the law or sound policy.”
“In my view, it amounted to nothing more than regulatory lawfare against one of the left’s top targets: Mr. Musk,” Carr wrote.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is defending his embattled carbon-pricing program on the world stage, and he argues that misinformation is threatening environmental progress. He spoke at a conference held by the anti-poverty group Global Citizen, ahead of the G20 leaders summit in Brazil, and said fighting climate change is not in conflict with affordability. (Nov. 17, 2024)
PROVO, Utah (AP) — Shortly after sunset on Saturday, Rabbi Chaim Zippel clasped an overflowing cup of wine and a tin of smelling spices as he marked the end of the Sabbath with a small Jewish congregation at his home near Provo, which doubles as the county’s only synagogue.
The conclusion of the ceremony known as Havdalah set off a mad dash to change into blue and white fan gear and drive to the football stadium at nearby Brigham Young University, the Utah private school run by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Zippel never expected to become a BYU fan, or even a football follower, but that changed when the school where 98.5% of students belong to the faith known widely as the Mormon church added its first Jewish quarterback to the roster.
Retzlaff has earned a hero’s embrace by rabbis and others in Provo’s tiny but tight-knit Jewish community while also becoming a favorite of the broader BYU fan base that lovingly calls him the “BYJew.”
One of just three Jewish students in a student body of 35,000, the quarterback and team co-captain who worked his way into the starting lineup has used his newfound stardom to teach others about his own faith while taking steps to learn more about Judaism for himself.
“I came here thinking I might not fit in with the culture, so this will be a place where I can just focus on school and football,” Retzlaff told The Associated Press. “But I found that, in a way, I do fit. People are curious. And when everybody around you is so faith-oriented, it makes you want to explore your faith more.”
The junior college transfer from Corona, California, formed a fast friendship with the Utah rabbi when he came to BYU in 2023. The two began studying Judaism fundamentals each week in the campus library, which would help Retzlaff speak confidently about his faith in public and in his many required religion classes.
BYU undergraduates must take classes about the Book of Mormon, the gospel of Jesus Christ and the faith’s core belief that families can be together forever if marriages are performed in temples. Retzlaff said he was surprised to find many references to the Jewish people in the Book of Mormon. Some classmates and fans have even called him “the chosen one,” referring to both his success on the field and a Latter-day Saint belief that members of the Jewish faith are God’s chosen people.
“It’s a lot of respect, honestly. They’re putting me on a mantel sometimes, and I’m like, ‘Whoa guys, I don’t know about that,'” he said with a laugh.
Retzlaff, 21, has embraced becoming an ambassador for his faith in college football and in a state where only 0.2% of residents are Jewish. The redshirt junior wears a silver Star of David necklace on campus and attends dinners on Shabbat, the Jewish day of rest, at the rabbi’s house during the offseason.
He led Utah County’s first public Hanukkah menorah lighting last year at Provo’s historic courthouse, brought a kosher food truck to a team weight training and wrapped tefillin with Zippel in the BYU stadium. The tefillin ritual performed by Jewish men involves strapping black boxes containing Torah verses to the arm and forehead as a way of connecting to God.
“I told Jake, I said, after doing this here, after connecting to God on your terms inside the stadium, no amount of pressure will ever get to you,” Zippel said. “I think there’s no greater example of finding your corner of the world where you’re supposed to make your impact and making that impact.”
Retzlaff is affiliated with the Reform denomination of Judaism, which melds Jewish tradition with modern sensibilities, often prioritizing altruistic values and personal choice over a strict interpretation of Jewish law. He plays football on Friday nights and Saturdays during Shabbat and says sports have become a way to connect with his faith and to inspire young Jewish athletes.
Among them is Hunter Smith, a 14-year-old high school quarterback from Chicago who flew to Utah with his dad, brother and a group of Jewish friends to watch Retzlaff play. The brothers sported Retzlaff’s No. 12 jerseys, and their father Cameron wore a “BYJew” T-shirt depicting Retzlaff emerging from a Star of David, the most recognizable symbol of the faith.
“Being the only Jewish quarterback in my area that I know of, I feel like I get to pave my own path in a way,” Smith said during Saturday’s game. “Jake’s the only Jewish quarterback in college football, so he’s someone I can relate to and is like a role model for me, someone I can really look up to.”
When Retzlaff lit Provo’s giant menorah last December, Zippel said he was touched to hear the quarterback speak about the importance of his visibility at a time when some Jewish students didn’t feel safe expressing their religious identity on their own campuses amid heightened antisemitism in the United States.
His presence has been especially impactful for BYU alumna Malka Moya, 30, who had struggled to navigate her intersecting identities on the campus as someone who is both Jewish and a Latter-day Saint.
“Jake feels very comfortable wearing his Star of David all the time,” said Moya, who lives near Provo. “I haven’t always been very comfortable with expressing my Jewish identity. But, more recently, I feel like if he can do it, I can do it.”
