Keeping our aircraft stocked with enough Air Canada enRoute magazines is a special challenge each November. This is because customers, both foodies and those simply appreciative of a good meal, like taking home the popular “Canada’s Best New Restaurants” edition.
For 18 years now, Air Canada has held this competition, spotlighting delectable new eateries across the country. It is only one of many ways we use our position as Canada’s flag carrier to support Canadian businesses and promote Canadian talent to the world.
In spending more than $10 billion yearly on supplies, we have many opportunities to buy Canadian. These range from large purchases, such as Airbus A220 aircraft, designed by Bombardier and built in Mirabel, Quebec, to CAE simulators showcasing Canadian technology, to everyday items such as specialty sandwiches from the Canadian food company Freshii or Canadian wines, such as those from Cave Spring, Tawse and Henry of Pelham, or amenity kits from Want Les Essentiels and Vitruvi skin-care products. We also spend heavily on services, including for airframe, interiors, components and parts maintenance, supporting well-paying jobs in a strategic sector of the economy.
Buying Canadian reinforces our identity. The stylish uniforms our employees proudly wear were designed by Canadian Christopher Bates. Our Maple Leaf Lounges are adorned with Canadian art and finished with Canadian-sourced wood and stone. We retain a panel of celebrated Canadian chefs, including David Hawksworth, Vikram Vij and Antonio Park, whose Canadian-inspired meals are complemented with wines selected by Canadian sommelier Véronique Rivest.
Our inflight entertainment system makes Air Canada one of the country’s largest exhibitors of audiovisual content. We provide an international platform for Canadian artists, with channels devoted to Canadian films and shorts. In partnership with the Canadian media company Stingray, we expose Canadian musicians to a global audience.
And enRoute draws on the talents of Canadian writers, photographers and illustrators, whose subjects are often notable people or places in our country.
The maple leaf on the tail of our aircraft announces to the world that we are Canadian. But it is by demonstrating through our products and services the talents and abilities our country possesses that we show what being Canadian really means.
