Air Canada, Canada’s largest and only traditional airline, found its rank for customer satisfaction at the very bottom of the list, according to consumer insights company J.D Power. Should this be a surprise to you? Not really – over the last couple of years, Air Canada’sreputation as a satisfactory airline has been deteriorating through a whirlwind of unhappy customers, an innumerable amount of delayed flights, indifferent flight attendants and a highly dubious in-flight entertainment system. And though I may appear overly sardonic in my assessment of Air Canada, and one may believe that Air Canada’s customer service negative reviews arose from petty concerns, can we really overlook one of Air Canada’s biggest mishaps yet, which is considered to have come close to the “greatest aviation disaster in history”?
What Happened?
Air Canada flight attempting to land at San Francisco International Airport nearly landed on a taxiway crowded with planes on Friday night, according to the FAA. The Plane itself was a 146-seat Airbus A320, and was cleared to land on the runway, but the pilot inadvertently line up on a taxiway, which was parallel to the runway, unwittingly laying the grounds for a catastrophic disaster. What came from a misunderstanding on the pilot’s end could have ended in disaster. The pilot, understanding the air control to be saying that he could land on the taxiway, narrowly overflowed the first two jets on the taxiway by a mere 100 feet, the third by 200 feet and the fourth by 300 feet before he get another attempt at landing. Too close for comfort. And although this incident is extremely rare, what does it show on Air Canada’s part? Air Canada’s status, already notoriously declining, certainly did not need an incident like this to its already mounting criticisms.
What can Air Canada to redeem themselves?
So now we reach the real question – can Air Canada be saved from its rapid decline? Some say that it may be necessary to revamp the entire company, from replacing the entire management, to dismantling the airline and forming new entities under new management. Another step would be to join the management and workers of Air Canada together so that they can embrace a new ideology towards customers, together. Both the workers and the management board need to come on the same side of the table and acknowledge the fact that they have a high number of customer-related issues and show the world that they are stronger, not only from the outside, but also from within.
Air Canada needs to tackle its problems headfirst and should taking extra precautionary measures to make sure they are not a step out of place in any direction. They most certainly did not need the blunder at San Francisco to happen, and need to compensate for it by giving their customers the service they deserve.
((((Summary))))
Air Canada can eradicate its negative reputation and create a new image for the airline, one that exemplifies the positive traits of a successful airline, if only they come to terms with their own shortcomings and work together as a unit to better Air Canada as a whole!
