Aviation Memorabilia Newsletter

Found in 'Horizons' magazine

Issue dated June 1993

The butt stops here.

The team at the Finishing Shop knows everything there is to know about our aircraft seats.

Making an impromptu quality control check on their handiwork are:

Left side, back row: Mechanics Jean Beaudry, Charly Côté, and Chris Tandon. 

Middle row: Jacques Gagné, Mechanic; Robert Hébert, Cleaner and Claude Patenaude, Mechanic.

Front row:  Mechanics Luc Lemieux and René Boucher.

Right side, back row: John Hatherall, Mechanic; Stan Dair, Acting Chief Planner; Dale Anderson, Mechanic and Leslie Gervais, Cleaner.

Second last row: Mechanics Yves Dusseault, Sylvain Duquette and Jean-Pierre Jalbert.

Middle row: Roger Duguay, Shop Inspector; Lead Mechanics Marcel Léonard and Gunter Stuebs.

Front row: Mechanics Sean Hunchberger and Réjean Latour with Foreman Claude Pilon.

Photo by Brian Losito

Seat facts:

• Air Canada has an inventory of more than 16,000 airline seats, 1,200 of them currently in storage.
• Air Canada was the first airline in North America to equip its aircraft with fireblock seats in 1986.
• The average lifespan of a seat-back cushion is five years. Seat-bottom cushions are usually replaced every three years.
• Air Canada changes its fabric style every five years.
• Air Canada's First Class seats offer 60 inches of pitch (the distance between an identical point on two seats). Executive Class seats offer 45 inches of pitch on international flights and 38 inches of pitch on domestic flights, while Hospitality Class seats offer 30 - 34 inches of pitch.

Toronto Ramp personnel from the YYZ Ramp Rats Facebook page.