Vesta's Jump Seat
Why not allow the NetLetter be your platform, and opportunity, to relive your history while working for either TCA, AC, CPAir, CAIL, PWA, AirBC etal. and share your experiences with us!The Air Canada Pionairs (www.pionairs.ca) had their 2009 Reunion and AGM in YWG in May and although I couldn't attend we have these photos of the Ground and Flight Attendants Fashion Show that was held.
The next AGM will be held in Montreal in either March or April of 2010.
The fashion show was held on Monday night (April 27th) and was a huge success with a packed room. They had both ground hostesses and flight attendants. modeling the uniforms they wore when they were active employees. Afterwards there was coffee/tea and a chocolate fountain fondue.
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Air Canada - our first 70 years
1965 - Spring The largest Stewardess class graduates. A total of 81 were posted across the system. Successfully completing the five week course, the bilingual and multilingual stewardesses were posted to Montrial, Toronto, Winnipeg and Vancouver. April 29th "Europe 870" DC-8 service to Dusseldorf and Paris was launched. |
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Air Canada News
Messier Services have been contracted to overhaul/exchange for eight A330 landing gears at Motsheim France through 2010. On call and overnight maintenance service at Newark has been awarded to TIMCO Aviation Services. |
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TCA/AC People Gallery
Over the past months we have been publishing various photographs from earlier "Horizons", should any photos prompt a memory in seeing one of them, feel free to send us your comments and thoughts.Musings from the "Between Ourselves" magazine Issue dated December 1964 Recently, London UK Sales and Operations employees met at the Osterley Hotel, near London Heathrow Airport for joint meetings and social activities.  Here we have several photos of the attendees   Sept-Iles switch to ReserVec.  Here we have this photo.  Here we have this photo taken in Winnipeg several years ago and was originally published in the October issue of "Between Ourselves" without identities. H.Fennessy, Aircraft Inspector at Winnipeg supplied all the identities and the photo was re published. Flight Operations held their golf tourny in St. Petersburg. That's Florida not Russia. Held at the Seminole Golf and Country Club.  These are the competitors who slugged it out, and probably cheatedon their score cards.  The Annual Stewardesses Dance was held at the Queen Elizabeth Building in Toronto. Over 300 were in attendance. Here we have this photo of a few of them.Issue dated August 1970  This photo is of the crew of the first non-stop service between Toronto and Saskatoon. Issue dated February 1965 Douglas Aircraft company DC-9's rolled out January 12th.in ceremonies at Long Beach, California. Air Canada is third in line for delivery. On January 27th, the prime minister, Lester B. Pearson flew on an Air Canada DC-8 to London, UK to attend the funeral of Sir Winston Churchill. Phoebe Wiens, EDP Quality Analyst at Dorval receives the highest award for a female in the history of the suggestion award scheme.  Here we have this photo of Pheobe with her supervisor D.G.(Don) Maple.. Issue dated April 1965 For the introduction of "Europe 870" DC-8 service to Dusseldorf and Paris, more than 100 travel agents and media reps were seated in a simulated flight to Europe in the For Garry Hotel in Winnipeg. They were given a sample of the service to be offered. At the annual meeting of the Ottawa Sales Meeting held at the Quebec Suite of the Chateau Laurier Hotel on March 25th.  We have this photo of the group at head table. The Winnipeg Air Freight Sales section helped exceed their quota.  Here they are gathered together to make plans for the future. |
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Alan's Space
 I got a chuckle out of the quote from the image that Terry found (see below) regarding Flight Attendant Jewel O'Hanlon. She was a "stewardess" in 1941 and in 1980 was reflecting on flight service over the years.
Jewel said one of the biggest changes is simply numbers. "Today's flight attendant must handle many more passengers sometimes with minimal time to perform duties. On those early flights I had only 12 to 14 passengers to look after and we weren't going anywhere terribly fast so had the opportunity to get to know them." I never really thought of that before! This may be the reason so many stewardesses got married and had to leave the airline in those early days! Quite a few people (including my brother) have sent me the following story about a futuristic Boeing 797. Unfortunately, the image is a conceptual picture from a Popular Science article about the future of aviation (one which proved so popular that it was made available for purchase in poster form) and has been circulated since at least early 1996 in fictitious articles proclaiming it to be Boeing's response to competition from the Airbus A380 in the commercial airliner business. Nice picture though, and we can dream can't we?  Seating Chart |
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Canadi>n/CPAir/PWA, Wardair, etc. Events & People
Over the past months we have been publishing various photographs from earlier in-house magazines, should any photos prompt a memory in seeing one of them, feel free to send us your comments and thoughts.Perusing "info Canadi>n" magazine Issue dated June 19th 1991 A310-300 aircraft leased to Compass Airlines of Brisbane, Australia June 18th with a second A310-300 to the same airline effective in November. (8) A310 aircraft due to be sold to IACO Trading has fallen through. Issue dated August 1st 1991 Employees show off at Florida airshow. A group of St.Petersburg and Tampa participated in a Canadian Airlines B767 display.  Here they are. Issue November 28th 1991 Announcement made that the service to Lima will be suspended effective Jan 26th 1992 after 38 years service. DC-10 seating configuration expanded by the elimination of 12 first class seats with a gain of an extra 27 Economy seats. Issue December 17th 1991 New alliance made with Mandarin Airlines of Taiwan to position Canadian for Asian growth. Toronto Argonauts celebrated the 1991 Grey Cup victory with some employees at Winnipeg.  Here they are in this photo. Issue February 11th 1992 The Info Canadian magazine changes from 8.5" x 11.0" size to 11.25" x 18.5" with a clearer layout and type and will be a monthly publication instead of the previous bi-weekly edition. T3 at YYZ celebrated its first birthday on the 21st.  Here are three customer service agents ready to celebrate. Under the banner of "InfoQuest", these five employees supplied their thoughts on the posed question "Would minority ownership in Canadian Airlines by a United States carrier be good or bad?"  Here they are.   Andrew Geider, Corporate Archivist submitted this article "Vintage uniform takes her back down the aisles". In 1980, the 50th anniversary of flight attendant service in the airline industry, Jewel O'Hanlon nee Butler, made a nostalgic trip to Whitehorse in an original uniform. Jewel was one of the first two flight attendants hired in 1941 by PCAL.   The inset photo is taken in 1942. |
 We have this memory from Bill Norberg Subject: Re Systems training course NetLetter #1066 The picture of the Systems analyst training course in Netletter #1066 brought back some interesting memories. Shortly after we received our first company computer in 1960, a corporate committee was established called the..."Automated data Processing Coordinating Committee"...or ADPCC as it was referred to. Bill Sadler, Henry Keil, Cammy Campbell, Howard Whitton,someone from Sales and myself were the original members. We visited the company locations where such interests existed as well as places outside the company. One of our initial recommendations was to establish a Systems Analyst training course as we saw a great need for such skills as use of computers expanded. Of the 15 people in the picture I was closely involved with 7 of them. Ernie Olson and Larry Mak were part of the Systems group I started in Maintenance in the 60's. Jim Barrable was the first person I was introduced to when I started with TCA in 1940. We were friends all through our years in the airline one way or another. Don Demeza and Jim Barrable carried out an analysis task for me when I centralized aircraft routing in Montreal in 1965. Frank Stevens and Dave Williams worked for me when I was running Transportation Services. I have great memories of all of these fine people. Thank you for another great trip to fond memories. Regards Bill Norberg Neil Burton sent us this attachment to an email.  Attached is a TCA postcard, post-marked February 28, 1951, Montreal, PQ. with an addressee at Vancouver. This was found at a collectibles sale. Neil Burton |
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World Airline Road Races
 ATTENTION RETIREESAN OPEN INVITATION TO ALL RETIREES ATTENDING THE WARR09 (WORLD AIRLINE ROAD RACES) IN HANGZHOU, CHINA .... SEPTEMBER 10-13, 2009 On behalf of our sponsors; City of Hangzhou, Tin Bo Travel (Service Ottawa), Explore China Tour, Hangzhou Grand-Hotel, China Eastern Airlines, Executive Committee of WARR'09, and airlinestravelclub.com , we would like to invite you, our retirees, to join us in this beautiful city, once described by Marco Pole as "a Paradise on Earth". CHINA - From $400.00 U$D+Tax & Svc. Chgs. Positive Space Passes from YVR, LAX and JFK Includes airline employees, family and non-airline friends First, let me stress, YOU DO NOT HAVE TO RUN IN THE ROAD RACE. This would offer a wonderful opportunity for you to gather among the more than 2,000 Airline personnel from all airlines throughout the world for a week or so of camaraderie with people you have come to know and love in the past.. Of course, if you are able, we would love to have you participate in either the 5K, 10K run or even walk with us around the beautiful West Lake area of Hangzhou, located about 2hrs. from Shanghai. If you wish to extend your tours before/after the activities of WARR09, the airlinestravelclub.com in cooperation with Explore China Tour and Tin Bo Travel have arranged several one week excursions to places such as Vietnam, Hong Kong, Taiwan and, of course, shopping trips to Shanghai and Beijing. China is an exciting and exotic country- this is your opportunity to explore it 'up close and personal' so, "FLY, WHILE YOU STILL HAVE WINGS". For more info contact: 28th WORLD AIRLINE ROAD RACE - September 10-13, 2009 Hangzhou, China www.worldairlineroadrace.org For travel Information after the race contact: www.airlinestravelclub.com Harry Sulley - Ottawa, Canada 613 521 3091 (CREDIT CARD PAYMENTS ACCEPTED) |
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Terry's Travel Tips
 Anyone contemplating taking a coach tour with Trafalgar Tours, may be interested in this informationLuggage: To make your tour more comfortable, Trafalgar passengers are requested to bring: One piece of luggage with dimensions not exceeding 30"x18"x10" (76x46x25cm) and weight not exceeding 50 lbs (23kg). One piece of hand luggage per person with dimensions not exceeding 12"x11"x6" (30x28x14cm) Please note: *A charge of up to US$5 per traveling day will be collected by the Tour Director if a second piece of baggage is carried, or if the suitcase exceeds the established weight and/or dimensions. Also, we cannot guaranteed that more than one suitcase will be carried. You should also check with your airline regarding luggage restrictions as regulations may vary. *Hand luggage with telescopic handles and wheels will not fit in the overhead compartments of coaches and can therefore not be accepted as carry-on luggage for safety reasons. More Luggage info from Ryanair One of the largest European low cost airlines, Ryanair is thinking of getting passengers to start carrying their own luggage all the way to the plane. This is because Ryanair is thinking about getting rid of the need for baggage handlers. This could help to save the airline itself even more money. The Chief Executive, Michael O'Leary, said that they would like to be able to tell the passengers to carry their bags down through airport security. There they can leave it by the steps, and they will put it on the aircraft. Along with saving the airline money, it could even end up saving the passengers money in the long run. This could make the low cost airline even cheaper to fly with.  Here is the next segment of the "Round the world" trip by Sheila Moscoe we started in NetLetter nr 1064. One more sea day as we headed around the south coast of Vietnam and westward to Cambodia (population almost 14 million). Our next port of call was Sihanoukville in southern Cambodia on the Gulf of Thailand. This former seaside town of Kompong Som did not become the port of Sihanoukville until 1955. When French Indochina broke up in 1954, Cambodia could no longer send its commerce down the Mekong, since the mouth of the river was now entirely inside Vietnam. Prince Norodom Sihanouk opened a new commercial port here, named after himself, with the help of French engineers. The port boasts an average of 310 sunny days per year and it usually rains only at night! It is considered one of the most beautiful and enchanting towns in the country with various beaches and resorts. We took an organized tour this time and were able to get around to see the Buddhist temples, such as the Wat Leu which overlooks the port and town from a hill 430 feet high. The children mob the tourists with trinkets to sell and ask for money. We were swarmed sometimes, but managed to "escape" unscathed. We also visited a home to about 20 family members who showed us how they live in their house on stilts. Lots of cute children, who didn't mob us this time. They had a small table set up where they sell some local goods to their neighbours.The highlight of the tour was a visit to a primary school where we were able to go inside the classrooms to see how these adorable children wearing uniforms were taught.They were very disciplined.They had a lovely library next to the classrooms. Once again, took lots of pictures. The last part of the tour we went to a seaside luxury resort with an exquisite pool and beach. I was fortunate enough to have time to go into the sea and relax on a chaise on the beach for a few minutes with a cold drink of coca cola! We had a few minutes to visit a local market, however, nothing could compare to the market in Saigon, so we were not able to buy anything touristy. But, it was interesting to see the fish/meat area, clothes, girls having pedicures and manicures, getting their hair washed, all this happening as we walked along the aisles. Back to the ship for an early evening departure. It was a lovely day with temps around 30C. We had another sea day sailing North Westerly to Thailand where we docked at Laem Chabang, but Bangkok is always shown as the port. However, it was at least 2 1/2 hours away by bus! Since we've been to Bangkok quite a few times, we elected to take the free Princess shuttle to Pattaya beach which was close by. This place was a haven during the Vietnam War days but it's all changed now with high rise hotels, and lots of street merchants on the sidewalks, and beach restaurants on the beach, of course! We walked our feet off and shopped for CDs and souvenirs and ate at a local cafe on the street side. Food was deelish and so was the Thai Singha beer! We finished off the day at a beautiful hotel pool where towels were provided for us. It was like a retreat after being out on the streets all day. I didn't tell you about Bangkok, but next time I go there, I will! Once again, we took the free Princess shuttle back to the ship. By the way, these shuttles are only mentioned in the newsletter (Princess Patter), the night before we dock. I'm sure they want as many passengers to take the Princess paid tours first! Well, I think that should be enough reading for awhile. I'll write you again with our next ports of call. Hope you enjoy reading these letters as much as I like writing them. Keep well, Love, Sheila (We hope that you find this trip report by Sheila interesting and informative if you are contemplating such a trip - eds) |