In response to claims being made by locals 2213
and 1990 of the Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) union representing customer sales
and service agents at Air Canada and Canadian Airlines, Air Canada today
issued the following statement:

Claims being made by these two CAW locals, with respect to their
Vancouver-based members only, contain a number of inaccuracies that require
clarification.
- No employees have been laid off or lost their jobs;
  - Customer service levels at Vancouver airport will not deteriorate;
  - The reassignments are occurring entirely within the provisions of the
    units` respective collective agreements;
  - The reassignments will allow for improved performance at the Aeroplan
    and general reservations call centres while having no negative impact
    on Vancouver airport where there is currently a surplus of agents;
  - There has been no violation of the CAW Collective Agreement.

“It is very unfortunate that this group of employees and their union
would react so negatively in view of the circumstances. Air Canada`s
acquisition of Canadian Airlines saved 16,000 jobs at Canadian. Moreover,
Canadian`s employees have since received wage increases of between 10 and 20
per cent and Air Canada`s employees have received a special 12 per cent
integration bonus,” said Calin Rovinescu, Executive Vice President, Corporate
Development and Strategy. “Their reaction is all the more unjustifiable as job
guarantees are in place until 2004 and their job reassignment is within the
same city.”

Currently, there are approximately 850 agents working at Aeroplan and
Canadian Plus call centres. We have identified an immediate need for a
combined total of approximately 1,200 Aeroplan agents to meet the customer
service and new business demands in 2001. We have also identified a surplus of
customer service and sales agents at Vancouver Airport.

As we are experiencing high call volumes at Aeroplan call centres, we are
reassigning approximately 300 customer sales and service agents at Vancouver
Airport to Aeroplan, effective January 8, 2001. This is entirely in accordance
with the terms of the Collective Agreements with both units.

No decision has been made whether part or all of the Aeroplan business or
operations will be sold to a third party. Moreover, on September 29, 2000, Air
Canada and the CAW local 2213 signed an agreement in which Air Canada
committed that should this take place, the current Collective Agreement would
remain in force. Work performed by customer sales and service agents covered
by the Collective Agreement would continue to be performed by employees at Air
Canada for the life of the current Collective Agreement.

It is important to Air Canada`s customers that we continue moving forward
with one of the last and very key integration activities. All employees
affected continue to be covered by the Collective Agreement, and continue to
enjoy all rights including transfers under the Agreement, which covers
employees in work locations at call centres as well as customer sales service
agents at airports.

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