Across North America, people awoke on September 11 to a horror beyond imagination
Across North America, people awoke on September 11 to a horror beyond imagination, courtesy
of their television news. Who knew then that the acts of terrorists
would precipitate the destruction of whole industries, ruin the lives
of so many hundreds of thousands of people, and turn a burgeoning
industry into a graveyard of parked aircraft and broken dreams?
Those
two aircraft that smashed into the World Trade Center created an effect
not unlike the tsunami that occurs after an earthquake. The resultant
wave washed over the aviation community leaving pilots, flight
attendants, ramp agents, baggage handlers, check-in staff, refuellers,
travel agents, catering staff, maintenance personnel and more, floating
like flotsam awash in the sea of destruction. To date, it is estimated
that over 150,000 direct airline-related jobs have been lost in North
America – many for good.
Here in Canada, the very public
collapse of Canada 3000 added to the floating debris, to the shock and
utter disbelief of staff, friends and the travelling public.
Economists agree that for every lost job, there is a multiple of six
more lost in related support industries. Subsequently, for every dollar
lost to bankruptcy, there are six dollars lost to the economy. The
collapse of C3 resulted in untold millions of dollars evaporating out
of the economy like spilled jet fuel.
No wonder we, especially
the immediate employees of C3, are looking for a scapegoat. We are all
struggling to make sense of how the Number Two air carrier in Canada
could be allowed to just disappear. Many blame the policies of the
federal Liberals. Many blame the predatory practices of Air Canada. And many of us blame the management decisions at C3 itself.
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