Canada's Air Transport Competitiveness

On 20 January 2011 in an address in Montreal Mr.Giovanni Bisignani the Director General of IATA called on the Government of Canada "to improve its global competitiveness in air transport, travel and tourism" Government policies has eroded Canada's competitive edge to the extent that Canada became the 15th most visited country in 2009 from the 8th in 2002 and the World Economic Forum Travel and Tourism Competitiveness in 2009 has ranked Canada (106) behind Japan (86), UAE (50), India (46) and China (20).
As a result the government protects Air Canada at the expense of the tourism industry by preventing airlines from   freely operating into Canada or allowing Canadian operators the freedom to compete with Air Canada.
Claims of loss of jobs if Emirates and Etihad operated additional flights into Canada are not supported by the realities on the ground. On the contrary, these additional services would have increased the number of visitors to Canada and probably generated additional jobs.
The short sightedness of these policies has resulted into more barriers and a rift with the UAE which is affecting Canadian Businesses and Citizens.  

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