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January 2007 - Strategy Magazine
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Brand experience
On a wing and a smile

by Will Novosedlik
page 48

The campaign calls Canada a country of people who like to go their own way.

Then it offers them a way to go that's "all their own."

From a company that enjoys a thinly disguised monopoly of available domestic air routes, this is another way of saying that when you fly with Air Canada, you're on your own.

Back in a Globe and Mail article on Jan. 7, Air Canada president/CEO Montie Brewer laid out his vision for transforming Canada's legacy airline into a "new breed of carrier

that will retain many of the features of a full-service airline while operating as a nimble, low-cost carrier."

He wanted Air Canada to be known as the airline industry's leading innovator in pricing, cabin comfort, and subscription passes. At the same time, he encouraged customers to think of their travel experience as "customizable," by introducing a pay-for-perks pricing system.

Of course what Air Canada now calls perks are what we used to get at no extra cost. According to Mr. Brewer, this "unbundling" of the airline's traditional offer is a necessary response to competitive pressure from low-cost carriers.

Mr. Brewer is someone who, as a boy, literally spent his spare time reading airline schedules. His boss Robert Milton has made similar statements about his own boyhood obsession with aircraft. What neither of them seems fascinated with is the feelings of passengers.

In Air Canada's world, shareholders rule. So the CEO and the chairman focus on equipment, schedules, load factors and cost control. Customers are somewhere at

the bottom, duking it out for last place with employees.

Anybody who travels regularly has more than one story of what a terrible experience it can be to fly with AC. My partner was once turned away at the gate while the plane was still moored to the jetway ("Sorry, the rules are the rules and you are late!"). I know someone who was buckled into her seat on a Thursday evening flight from Montreal to Toronto only to find out that there were no pilots available. By the time the pilots arrived an hour later, the ground crew had been called to another flight. Another hour on the ground and the rage in the cabin was at boiling point.

Perhaps the most notable aspect of the Air Canada experience is the lack of simple human warmth exuded by its employees. This is not a happy crowd. They are not owners. They are union members. And they took wage cuts in 2005 while their executives harvested significant gains in ACE stock options. That translates into a surly culture - and icy service.

Then there is WestJet. WestJet is an inversion of the Air Canada model: first in line are employees, then customers. The thinking is that if employees are happy, the customers will be too, and keeping customers happy means ROI for investors.

WestJet executives are not afraid to roll up their sleeves: President/CEO Clive Beddoe is famous for helping clean the planes that he flies on. Pilots pitch in as well. They are not just being nice: They are reducing gate turn, which reduces passenger wait time. And saves costs. They are also demonstrating that they are people just like you and me.

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