[AIRLINE] Air Canada CEO earns $7.8 million in 2013

Like it or not, it seems to me that Air Canada is clearly making money. The breakdown of his salary is as follows: $1.4 million in base salary, $2.6 million in share-based awards, $2.6 million in stock options and $2.26 million in annual bonus, along with $290,800 in pension value. Not a bad amount for an airline that gets hit with a lot of criticism.

I recently flew on an Air Canada flight and I still find their service pretty good. I actually do not have any complaints about Air Canada service wise. My issue is more the high ticket prices, especially when redeeming Aeroplan points for reward flights. Unfortunately there isn’t much we can do about it. So long as Air Canada’s business is doing well, they can keep their ticket prices high. Air Canada has come a long way since being under bankruptcy protection back in 2003.

I am actually going to take this opportunity to challenge other airlines to keep up with Air Canada’s performance since 2003. Though WestJet and Porter seems to also be doing quite well. When all airlines are doing well, it usually means that the economy is doing well. So yes, we want airlines to drop their fares, but usually when fares go down, it means the economy is going down with it. Unfortunately there is some correlation.

For now, since flight tickets appear to be quite high, my strategy is to take advantage of as many higher than normal Aeroplan sign up bonuses as I can so that I can continue to use my points on Star Alliance partners, especially United Airlines, with lower tax and fuel surcharges.

Currently, the best promotion out there is the American Express 30,000 Aeroplan sign up bonus with referral.