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THE GLOBE AND MAIL
THURSDAY, JUNE 15, 2006
G
COMMENT •
COMMENT EDITOR, PATRICK MARTIN FEEDBACK TO: COMMENT@GLOBEANDMAIL.CA EDITORIAL PAGE EDITOR, MARCUS GEE FEEDBACK TO: EDITORIALS@GLOBEANDMAIL.COM
I
was more than a little dismayed
to pick up my Saturday Globe
and Mail and read Jeffrey Simp-
son’s column (Air Canada
Doesn’t Give A Damn — June 10).
Coming as it did without warning,
and containing a level of vitriol
rarely exhibited by the normally re-
flective Mr. Simpson, my first re-
sponse was shock.
Upon further consideration,
however, I had to admit that while I
disagree with many of Mr. Simp-
son’s assertions, some criticisms of
our company are fair. We are not
perfect and things sometimes go
wrong. I’ll be the first to admit that.
Let me also take this opportunity
to apologize personally to all our
customers who have experienced
problems when flying with Air
Canada. No one, least of all our
company, wins when a customer
goes away dissatisfied.
We carry 30 million people a year
safely to their destinations. Along
the way, we strive to provide pro-
fessional, courteous service. Some-
times, we exceed that goal and our
people reach out to customers in
ways that are truly inspiring. But
sometimes we let our customers
and ourselves down. I don’t think
anyone at Air Canada would deny
that.
Our employees have gone
through a lot in recent years — a
hostile takeover fight, a major
merger, a severe downturn brought
on by SARS and a financial restruc-
turing. There is no doubt their mo-
rale has suffered along the way,
and so I have made it my goal to re-
build that morale through dia-
logue, real change in the way we
work together and meaningful fi-
nancial incentives, such as our
profit-sharing plan, which paid out
$43.5-million to Air Canada em-
ployees in 2005.
Mr. Simpson’s criticisms of our
employees, however, are unfound-
ed and downright insulting. Our
employees work hard every day to-
ward better serving our customers.
One important measure of this
commitment is Air Canada’s on-
time-performance rat