Canadian National Railways |
Previous |
Home |
|
|
Canadian National Airlines |
I have included a little bit of history about the TCA Airline that was once owned by the Canadian National Railway. This info was obtained from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Trans-Canada Air Lines (also TCA in English, and Air Canada in
French) was a Canadian airline and operated as the country's flag carrier. Its
corporate headquarters were in Montreal, Quebec, and its first president was Gordon Roy
McGregor. The creation of TCA was partly by CNR management who wanted to expand the
company into the new field of passenger aviation, and was partly by government
direction. Prior to TCA, no large national airline existed in Canada. With war
looming, and other nations (primarily the U.S.) experiencing major increases in the
creation of passenger airlines, it was necessary to have a presence. CNR was the
country's largest corporation at the time and proved an effective vehicle for
the government to create a national airline. Interestingly, TCA was also in direct competition with passenger trains operated by parent CNR, and
contributed to the decline of passenger rail service as Canada entered the
pioneering years of air travel. In response to CNR's creation of TCA, arch-rival
Canadian Pacific Railway created Canadian Pacific Air Lines in 1942. In 1953 with the development of ReserVec, TCA became the first airline
in the world to use a computer reservation system with
remote terminals. |
Previous |
Home |
|
|