Features Operations
Air Canada Turns 65

Air Canada turned 65 in September. A journey that began with a
singleengine Lockheed 10A taking off from Vancouver's Sea Island
Airport for a 50-minute flight to Seattle one late summer afternoon in
1937, continues today for one of the greatest names in commercial
aviation.

It hasn't always been a smooth voyage. Trans Canada Air Lines (TCA)
conquered the turbulent air over the Rocky Mountains in 1939. Since
then, some of the ground battles have been just as bumpy.

Looking back however, the skirmishes that broke out over the change
of name in 1965, and privatization in 1988, have been eclipsed by more
explosive controversies such as the takeover of rival Canadian Airlines
and the difficulty of fusing two distinct corporate cultures into a
single international airline.