Calin Rovinescu was strolling through an art museum in Barcelona on a wedding anniversary getaway when he heard the news.
asserted
he → stroll → news
In a pair of phone calls, his assistant told him planes had just struck the twin towers in New York City.
“I was looking at Picasso’s unique, surrealistic art … as I was hearing a surrealistic story,” Air Canada’s then-executive vice-president recalled.
asserted
president → tell → story
Rovinescu, who would go on to become CEO, remembers scrambling to find a quiet place to dial into an emergency meeting of Air Canada executives, rushing into the street and through the doors of a café.
asserted
who → go → café
“The world was changing before my eyes, and the people around me had no clue what was about to happen,” he said.
asserted
he → change → clue
The attacks and the plunge in air travel that followed forced a frenzy of tough choices among aviation and government leaders in the days and weeks afterward, as Sept. 11 pushed some airlines to the brink and beyond, reshaping Canada’s aviation landscape.
Leading the call with Rovinescu was then-chief executive Robert Milton, who had just woken up from a nap in London after catching a redeye flight from Montreal.
asserted
who → follow → Montreal
Receiving special clearance from the Canadian, U.S. and U.K. governments, Milton managed to fly back to Canada the day after the tragedy alongside Rovinescu, who’d hopped over to London from Spain.
asserted
who → receive → Spain
European airspace remained open.
asserted
airspace → remain → ?
“I remember being on the flight deck with the crew,” Milton said of the voyage, taken in a Bombardier Challenger business jet loaned last-minute by that company’s CEO.
asserted
Milton → remember → CEO
Air Canada’s 300-plus planes were grounded.
asserted
planes → ground → ?
“It was truly eerie because there was no radio communication at all, whereas normally there’d be an armada of aircraft crossing the Atlantic in both directions.
asserted
It → be → directions
Then-Air Canada CEO Robert Milton recalls the surreal sense of uncertainty he and his colleagues faced that day, as well as the financial fallout.
asserted
he → recall → day
Marie-Hélène Lévesque, special assistant to transport minister David Collenette at the time, drove back to Ottawa from Montreal the morning of Sept. 11 with her boss.
asserted
Lévesque → drive → boss
They had ducked out of an airport conference, where his speech was interrupted by the jangle of cellphones in the audience as executives got word of the unfolding disaster.
asserted
executives → duck → disaster
“In that minivan, all the major decisions were taken,” said Lévesque, now director general of the Public Health Agency of Canada.
asserted
Lévesque → take → Canada
Following the lead of American authorities, Collenette greenlit the closure of Canada’s airspace minutes after a Boeing 757 crashed into the U.S. Pentagon at 9:37 a.m.
asserted
Boeing → follow → a.m.
It marked the first time ever that either country had taken such a step.
asserted
country → mark → step
“This was the third plane, and we didn’t know how many more there were,” said then-deputy minister Margaret Bloodworth.
asserted
Bloodworth → know → ?
Before the battery died on his cell, Collenette instructed Nav Canada to order 270 planes over the Atlantic Ocean to turn around and fly back to Europe.
asserted
planes → die → Europe
He also oversaw the landing of 224 other diverted flights carrying 33,000 passengers to 17 Canadian airports in a matter of hours, the most extensive aircraft grounding in the country’s history.
asserted
He → oversee → history
In Gander, N.L., the airport took on 38 planes carrying 6,500 people.
asserted
airport → take → people
The hardiness and hospitality of the town’s 9,000-plus residents became known to the world via the Broadway hit musical Come From Away, which chronicled their experience hosting the stranded travellers.
asserted
which → know → travellers
“Some of them sat for 24 hours because we weren’t ready to let them off the planes until we had enough customs and immigration people there to screen them.
asserted
we → sit → them
We didn’t know who was on them,” said Bloodworth.
asserted
Bloodworth → know → them
“They didn’t know until they landed what had happened because it was not the days where you could have the internet from planes,” she added.
uncertain
she → know → planes
“And the pilots by and large did not tell passengers until they landed, because there’s no point in panicking people.
asserted
they → tell → people
In the weeks and months that followed, politicians and bureaucrats allocated billions of dollars for new security measures and the creation of the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority, which took charge of passenger screening processes that until then had been in the hands of individual airlines.
asserted
that → follow → airlines
An eventual gauntlet of checkpoints and protocols – shoes off, laptops out, liquids limited to 100 millilitres – signalled a permanent shift in how travellers fly.
asserted
travellers → limit → shift
Meanwhile, airlines struggled to absorb the blow of plummeting demand.
asserted
airlines → struggle → demand
A majority of Air Canada revenues stemmed from flights to and from the United States, including routes where Canada was a layover point for overseas trips, Milton said.
asserted
Milton → stem → trips
The plunge in air travel demand in the post-9/11 months severely dented earnings.
asserted
plunge → dent → earnings
Air Canada cut 6,600 workers and posted a $1.25-billion loss in 2001 after losing hundreds of millions of dollars in sales in the fourth quarter alone.
asserted
Canada → cut → quarter
The US$15-billion in grants and loan guarantees that American rivals received didn’t help, as Canadian carriers received relatively little in financial aid – about C$160-million.
asserted
carriers → receive → aid
“When so much of your revenues are generated in the U.S market and your competition receives so much subsidization, you’re going to be destabilized.
asserted
you → generate → subsidization
And we were destabilized,” Milton said.
asserted
Milton → destabilize → ?
The country’s second-largest airline, discount carrier Canada 3000, soon folded.
asserted
airline → fold → ?
It was placed in bankruptcy in November, 2001.
asserted
It → place → November
Numerous airlines across the globe met a similar fate, ranging from Ansett Australia to Swiss Air.
asserted
airlines → meet → Air
Others restructured under bankruptcy protection in the decade that followed, including almost every U.S. legacy carrier and, in 2003, Air Canada.
asserted
that → restructure → 2003
“It led to a big, big restructuring.
asserted
It → lead → restructuring
It highlighted the fragility of the cost structure,” said Rovinescu.
asserted
Rovinescu → highlight → structure
…and 9 more, not listed.
The Aporia
