Aviation Memorabilia Newsletter

Ken Pickford came across a link to this item from the Montreal Gazette in the Air Canada Media site.

Homecoming: Retiring Air Canada pilot shares cockpit with daughter on final flight.

Air Canada’s Montreal-based chief pilot for the Airbus A330 jet has retired after nearly four decades, passing the baton to his daughter.

Air Canada Flight 879 from Toulouse, France landed at Montreal’s Trudeau International Airport Monday at 2:46 p.m., ahead of a scheduled 2:55 p.m. arrival.

That brought the curtain down on the four-decade flying career of the airline’s Montreal-based Airbus A330 chief pilot. Captain Jean Castonguay’s retirement began nine minutes early — and it cost him a tie.

See montrealgazette.com for the full story.

Listen to a radio interview at www.iheartradio.ca

Retiring Air Canada pilot Jean Castonguay has his tie cut off as per tradition by his daughter, First Officer Marie-Pierre, after his last flight from Toulouse, at Trudeau airport in Montreal on Monday, December 11, 2023.

Photo by John Mahoney /Montreal Gazette

Editors' Note by Ken: Coincidental that his last A330 flight was from Toulouse, Airbus HQ and where all their widebodies and many of the A320 family are built.

Note comments near end of the Gazette item re Airbus also giving him a sendoff and model aircraft. He said he could have moved to the B-787 or B-777 but preferred the A330 which he flew for 15 years.