In an effort to compete with its domestic rival WestJet and an average stock price, Air Canada successfully lowers its costs surging its share price up 12%. CASM, is the Costs Per Available Seat Mile, or to simplify, the costs based on a single seat that could provide revenue. They were able to lower this 3.5%, indicating a significant reduction in costs.
The hero behind their soaring performance is their Operations Management team. As we learned in class #6 with guest speaker Professor Nagarajan, the operations division of a company is what takes raw materials and gets them to the final product. In the case of Air Canada, their operations team handles the different aspects of their service such as fuel costs, food costs, and maintenance to name a few. In a business notorious for rising costs, their team reduced costs, which reduced the CASM as I mentioned earlier and this in turn has allowed Air Canada to exceed expectations.
The article used in this post can be found at:
http://business.financialpost.com/2013/10/04/air-canada-continues-to-soar/
Photo can be found at:
http://www.montrealgazette.com/business/cms/binary/8755456.jpg