Jerry Rudge was involved in Canadian Airlines aircraft acquisitions back in the 1980s and 1990s, and he recently gave me his collection of historical documents and photos that he had amassed in his years in the industry.

Part of this archive included a set of photos taken presumably by Boeing that were gifted to various Canadian Airlines employees on the occasion of the delivery of Canadian’s first Boeing 747-475 C-GMWW. I was gob-smacked to see these very interesting photos, specially recognizing Max Ward and his wife, as well as Canadian’s then CEO Rhys Eyton.

From the photos we can see there was a hand-over and paperwork ceremony of sorts in Seattle that was attended by various Canadian chief executives, and Boeing Commercial Airplane senior execs. Then everyone went out onto the Boeing Field apron for photos with the aircraft and Max Ward did the champaign bottle on the nose trick as the aircraft was named after him. Max Ward had the world’s best luck! He sold his Wardair airline to PWA for half a billion dollars in 1987, which would be like 4 billion dollars in today’s dollars! And his airline was in trouble and could very well have failed given the deregulating Canadian airline marketplace. He sure pulled one over on Ryhs Eyton and the Canadian Board. Some people believe Canadian could have survived probably even to this very day had they not made such an unwise move to purchase Wardair. I personally agree with that point. Anyhow, that is a whole different story.

After the christening ceremony the Canadian Boeing 747-475 was presumably ferried up to Vancouver. The Canadian Airlines in house newspaper reported on their new Boeing 747-475 the following month, which provided interesting insight into how the new 747-400 was deployed in its first months of revenue service with Canadian Airlines:

It’s A New Ball Game With The New Boeing 747-400

While Canadian continues to build on its global alliances, the arrival of the two 747-475 aircraft will have a dramatic impact on the company’s global strategy when the new international schedule begins April 7, 1991.

Canadian’s first 392-seat B747-400, which arrived in December will replace the 225-seat DC-10 on the Vancouver-Tokyo route, providing a 30 per cent increase in capacity on one of Canadian’s most profitable routes. With no more slots available at Narita Airport, Canadian is in a growth position unique among all carriers seeking to grow in that market. The second 747-400, which arrived on February 15, 1991, will begin service on the Vancouver- Hong Kong-Bangkok
Return route.

“It’s not just that we are increasing our capacity,” explains Ian Bootle, Vice President International. “These are very high-yield long-haul routes where customers have expressed a preference for this aircraft type.” In fact, the 747-400 offers 60 Business Class seats compared to only 34 on the DC 10.The international schedule features increased frequency to most other key markets as a result of Canadian‘s commercial alliances. “Alliances allow us to maintain our extensive worldwide network of destinations, increase the frequency of flights, and find new markets to serve” says Bootle. “Increasing our frequency to daily service provides improved market penetration particularly in attracting high yield customers. As well, alliances allow us to share the cost of operating and promoting the routes.”

Canadian has commercial agreements with JAL, Lufthansa, SAS, Qantas, Air New Zealand, Air France, Alitalia, China Airlines, and Garuda Airways.

Europe

Canadian has expanded its agreement with Lufthansa to increase the number of flights from Western Canada from 12 to 14 times a week compared with 1990. As well, Lufthansa will participate in the three weekly Toronto-Munich flights, using B767 aircraft. The SAS agreement will continue to see Toronto-Copenhagen service three times weekly.

With enhancement of the Air France alliance Canadian will serve Toronto-Paris daily, including four weekly non-stops, and Montreal-Paris daily. Service to Italy will feature eight flights a week, up one from last year.

The new United Kingdom schedule will better tailor capacity with demand. The Dayliner/Starliner series will not operate this summer, instead Canadian will introduce four evening services from London to Toronto aimed primarily at the business traveller to complement the daily Toronto-London service. Canadian is also introducing three non-stop Toronto-Manchester flights. Canadian will continue to operate the only non-stop service between Ottawa-London. Daily service will be maintained between Western Canada and Britain.

North Pacific

Although Canada to Japan service will increase only one flight to 18 flights a week from 1990, the change to B747-400 adds 30 per cent capacity. Vancouver-Tokyo and Toronto-Tokyo remain unchanged at 10 times weekly and three times weekly, respectively. Calgary-Edmonton-Tokyo resumes a once
weekly flight (Sundays). Canadian also plans to increase Vancouver-Nagoya
flights from three to four times weekly.

Canadian will maintain nine weekly flights to Hong Kong and five to Bangkok, but the new schedule now sees twice weekly scheduled service to Taipei. The 8747-400 will have a 30 per cent capacity impact on these routes as well. South Pacific The new commercial agreement with Qantas will allow Canadian to serve the land downunder as never before with daily flights from Vancouver to Sydney, up from three flights weekly, and new daily service to Melbourne. Through an agreement with Air New Zealand, Vancouver-Auckland will increase to six times a week, up three flights from 1990. Vancouver-Nadi go from three weekly to four times a week, using a combination of Air New Zealand and Qantas south of Honolulu. Service from Toronto to the South Pacific, including Sydney, Auckland, and Nadi will remain essentially unchanged from 1990.

Latin America

Frequency to Mexico City, which began with one weekly flight last November,
and to Lima will double to twice weekly. These destinations will feature B767 aircraft, replacing the DC-lO. In fact, all service to Latin America will use B767 equipment by early September. Frequency to Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Aires and Santiago will remain unchanged from 1990 with twice weekly to each destination.