AIM.TO - Aimia

[petec]

From my conversation with the CFO, my understanding was that there is no restriction post 2020. I'm sure some interesting conversations will start with WestJet who might benefit from having a large customer that knows almost everything about the buying patterns of its biggest competitor's clients.

 

Great stuff, thanks.

 

What's Westjet like?  How would Aeroplan members feel spending their points there rather than with AC?

[clutch]

From my conversation with the CFO, my understanding was that there is no restriction post 2020. I'm sure some interesting conversations will start with WestJet who might benefit from having a large customer that knows almost everything about the buying patterns of its biggest competitor's clients.

 

Great stuff, thanks.

 

What's Westjet like?  How would Aeroplan members feel spending their points there rather than with AC?

 

Westjet mostly flies in North America, although they are now planning to expand overseas. So if you fly frequently overseas, most would fly with AC. Also, frequent flyers in general would prefer AC because their Altitude program offers some perks (Maple Leaf lounge access, faster security lane, etc.)

 

[Uccmal]

From my conversation with the CFO, my understanding was that there is no restriction post 2020. I'm sure some interesting conversations will start with WestJet who might benefit from having a large customer that knows almost everything about the buying patterns of its biggest competitor's clients.

 

Great stuff, thanks.

 

What's Westjet like?  How would Aeroplan members feel spending their points there rather than with AC?

 

Westjet mostly flies in North America, although they are now planning to expand overseas. So if you fly frequently overseas, most would fly with AC. Also, frequent flyers in general would prefer AC because their Altitude program offers some perks (Maple Leaf lounge access, faster security lane, etc.)

 

I just flew via Delta to and from Las Vegas.  At least thats what the ticket says.  The planes were run by WestJet.  It wont be long before WestJet has some sort of formal alliance.  It will really take off the next time AC goes into bankruptcy. 

 

It seems like a good fit to me, but what do I know. 

[sculpin]

A point of view from what seems to be the only somewhat bullish analyst at Raymond James. The BofD & mgmt capital allocation (dividends, share buybacks) decisions at this point need to be reversed given the new situation this Company finds itself in.

 

AIMIA May 11, 2017

Outperform 2

C$7.00 target price ↓

 

Kenric S. Tyghe MBA | 416.777.7188 | kenric.tyghe@raymondjames.ca

Helen Liu CFA (Associate) | 416.777.7060 | helen.liu@raymondjames.ca

Consumer & Retail

 

1Q17 Results; Tantrum on the Tarmac

 

Recommendation

 

AIMIA’s 1Q17 earnings beat was overshadowed by the unexpected announcement of a

termination of the Air Canada contract, in 2020. While we believe that AIMIA was in an

unenviable position, given the timing of the announcements (and the ease with which Air

Canada could make some intriguing assertions and then go silent), AIMIA could have

mitigated the fallout by providing some specifics on the call (and limit some of the

misinformation that, in our opinion, is fueling the selloff). We are buyers of AIMIA as we

believe: (i) the risks to the economics of the program are smaller than feared; (ii) the

mitigating actions AIMIA can take to manage those risks are many; and, (iii) the reality is

that even beyond 2020 the value proposition of the currency will be at least equivalent to

that of its next nearest competitor in our opinion (all that goes away is the discount on

the classic fares). AIMIA purchases roughly $700 mln a year in seats from Air Canada of

which roughly $250 mln are on the fixed cost (previously classic grid) at a discount (which

in 2020 will be eliminated). We believe that while the discount on distressed inventory

(the additional seats Air Canada needs Aeroplan to fill) is high, that the adjusted EBITDA

headwind beyond 2020 at the midpoint for AIMIA is approximately $55 mln (a very

manageable number versus the fear). There is no risk of a run on the bank.

 

Analysis

 

 “Air Canada intends to continue to offer AIMIA redemption seats for Aeroplan

members after June 2020, with pricing competitive with other third-party rewards

programs”. Air Canada intends to offer redemption options because if they don’t,

they have a $700 mln plus revenue hole, which the revenues from their own

program will take years (if ever) to replace. Air Canada is not proposing being

gracious in continuing to offer redemption options -- they simply can’t afford not to.

 

 “The new Air Canada loyalty program will be focused on improved rewards and

recognition for the Airline’s customers, and will provide Air Canada and our business

partners with significant growth opportunities”. There is literally not a single

precedent we can recall supporting improved rewards and recognition of Airline

managed programs; indeed, the US Airline industry is a case study in the contrary

(with Airlines’ typically devaluing a loyalty currency and using it as a cash cow).

 

Valuation

 

Our new C$7.00 target price is based on the average of a 6.0x (10.0x-prior) multiple

on our 2017E adjusted EBITDA and 20% FCF yield (10%-prior). Our target multiple is

less than half its loyalty and transaction processing peer group 2017E average of

12.8x, which we believe is conservative and appropriately reflects the risks

associated with the Air Canada transition through 2020. S

[Uccmal]

Is there anything that would prevent Aeroplan/Aimia to allow its members to exchange their points for flights at other airlines? I would really love being able to use mine on Delta for example.

 

 

I don't think there can be.  Points are a currency earned and owned by the members.  And most aren't earned at AC but at via credit card use.  I doubt AC can ban members from spending currency earned on cards at another airline if Aimia does a deal.  One of the Brazilian loyalty schemes has commented that they would be able to transfer to another airline if something similar happened to them.  But the devil will be in the contract detail.

 

There is nothing that would keep points from being used for other airlines. In fact, half of points are spent now on Star Alliance members or on market fares (effectively cash value). The additional value for points to customers was on the lower priced fixed inventory that AC sold Aeroplan.

 

I spoke with the CFO for a bit at the AGM today. I suggested strongly that they should kill the dividend on the common and buyback preferred. He suggested there wasn't enough volume in the pref to do that and I clarified I was talking about a substantial issuer bid and not an NCIB. At the very least they should pay off all the fixed debt as soon as possible versus paying dividends on the common.

 

Perhaps since their attempt to keep the common stock afloat by not cutting the dividend didn't work, they will consider making the right long term decisions!

 

Lets hope.  Do you think a few emails to investor relations on this from board members might help?

I am going to send one anyway suggesting they kill the dividend until they have made up for the lost business. 

[petec]

Is there anything that would prevent Aeroplan/Aimia to allow its members to exchange their points for flights at other airlines? I would really love being able to use mine on Delta for example.

 

 

I don't think there can be.  Points are a currency earned and owned by the members.  And most aren't earned at AC but at via credit card use.  I doubt AC can ban members from spending currency earned on cards at another airline if Aimia does a deal.  One of the Brazilian loyalty schemes has commented that they would be able to transfer to another airline if something similar happened to them.  But the devil will be in the contract detail.

 

There is nothing that would keep points from being used for other airlines. In fact, half of points are spent now on Star Alliance members or on market fares (effectively cash value). The additional value for points to customers was on the lower priced fixed inventory that AC sold Aeroplan.

 

I spoke with the CFO for a bit at the AGM today. I suggested strongly that they should kill the dividend on the common and buyback preferred. He suggested there wasn't enough volume in the pref to do that and I clarified I was talking about a substantial issuer bid and not an NCIB. At the very least they should pay off all the fixed debt as soon as possible versus paying dividends on the common.

 

Perhaps since their attempt to keep the common stock afloat by not cutting the dividend didn't work, they will consider making the right long term decisions!

 

Lets hope.  Do you think a few emails to investor relations on this from board members might help?

I am going to send one anyway suggesting they kill the dividend until they have made up for the lost business.

 

Good idea.

 

Care to provide a template?  It might (or might not?) have more effect if it looked co-ordinated.

 

P

[Cardboard]

I would Al and I did yesterday.

 

"I spoke with the CFO for a bit at the AGM today. I suggested strongly that they should kill the dividend on the common and buyback preferred. He suggested there wasn't enough volume in the pref to do that and I clarified I was talking about a substantial issuer bid and not an NCIB. At the very least they should pay off all the fixed debt as soon as possible versus paying dividends on the common."

 

Thanks for discussing with him SafetyinNumbers and letting us know. The underlined is just amazing to me. How is it that a CFO of what was before this mess a billion dollar company does not know of other means to buy securities than a NCIB?

 

If he does not like the idea of buying preferreds at a discount then say so but, please do not mention that liquidity makes it impossible...

 

Cardboard

[Uccmal]

I sent the following note to investor relations:

 

Dear Ms. Keyes,

 

I am sure you are awash in many notes from concerned shareholders. 

 

In light of the rather sudden change in the situation with Air Canada I am surprised that the BOD didn't suspend the dividend on the common shares.  I am also surprised of the intention to buy back stock.  I realize this is an attempt to prop up the common shares.  It hasn't worked, and never works, in any other situation that I have observed in over 20 years of investing.

 

A better action in my opinion would be to eliminate the dividend on the common and build up cash on the balance sheet while we go through this transition.  I have confidence that Aimia can diverisfy away from its dependence on Air Canada.  It would be nice to know there was an extra 120 million per year to see us into the next growth phase.  The market has already priced the dividend cut into the share price so why not bite the bullet, get it done, and deploy the cash in greener pastures. 

 

There is also no reason to pay down fixed debt, or buy in shares.  The debt that Aimia carries is cheap in comparison to many other companies. 

 

The extra cash could be used to develop relationships with other carriers, and invest in the other assets that Aimia has such as those in Mexico. 

 

I am sure this is in the forefront of managements minds but it may be a good time to explore developing a program with West Jet and Delta. 

 

Please consider taking this note to upper management. 

 

Sincerely,

 

 

[Cardboard]

Good letter. You may want to send an amendment to suggest buying back preferreds on the cheap. This is expensive debt when you look at it.

 

Cardboard

[misterkrusty]

Uccmal-  I applaud this effort to communicate the wisdom of suspending common dividends.  I agree with y'all on that. 

 

BUT, keep in mind that they declared this dividend before receiving legally-binding notice that AC definitely intends to not renew the contract.  Thus, their decision could have been just posturing in an attempt to seem confident in the event that AC came back to the negotiating table.  Mgmt dropped plenty of hints on the call that - at the time - they viewed this as a real possibility.

 

And yes, it's possible that they still intend to pay dividends and buyback common shares.  I'm simply suggesting that we not characterize their decision on this one most recent dividend as stupidity.  Let's not even comment on it and just say please don't declare any more divvys for now.

[misterkrusty]

Folks - here's my latest thoughts (posted to sumzero.com where I totally nailed the timing on this one ... posted a buy rec on the preferreds just two weeks ago.  I'm sharing it with you in hopes of collecting your reactions - good, bad, or really bad.

 

Here it is:

 

it's far from clear to me how much of today's paper loss is really a permanent impairment of capital.

 

First let's take a quick look at some numbers that might help to estimate the extent of the damage. Aimia gave us a couple useful datapoints yesterday. One is that Classic

Fares represented ~50% of the flight rewards redeemed on Aeroplan in 2016. The other is that Classic Fares represented 1/3 of the $682M that Aeroplan spent on airfare in 2016.

 

 

We also know that about 30% of flight rewards are Market Fares (4Q15 presentation). Assuming that hasn't changed much, it seems that 1 - 50% - 30% = 20% of fares are on other Star Alliance partner flights (i had assumed 14%). The cost to Aeroplan for Market Fare flights in 2016 was $185M. Finally, Aeroplan issued 1.9M flights to members in 2016. From all this we can deduce:

 

                                              % of flights       % of airfare cost       cost ($M)         flights (M)       avg cost/flight

Classic Fare flights                         50%                         33%                   227               1.0                       $239

Market Fare flights                         30%                         27%                   185               0.6                       $325

other Star Alliance partner flights 20%                         40%                   270               0.4                       $710

                                                        100%               100%                   682               1.9

 

No surprise that flights on other Star Alliance partners are much more expensive - given AC's extensive routes in Canada and the US, almost all of these are probably international flights to some other country. As such, comparing the average cost of these flights to the rest is probably not apples-to-apples. But comparing the costs of Market Fares vs Classic Fares probably makes sense. And there we can see that Classic Fares seem to be priced at a roughly 26% discount to Market Fares (239/325 - 1 = 26%), which is pretty close to my 25% assumption in the writeup .

 

In their press release today, AC said that it "intends to continue to offer Aimia redemption seats for Aeroplan members after June 2020, with pricing competitive with other third-party rewards programs." I take this to mean rates similar to current Market Fare rates. So all else equal (more on that in a second!), if Aimia took them up on that offer and paid Market Fare rates across the board, that would mean an extra $81M (1/(1-26%) - 1 = 36% increase. $227M * 36% = $81M).

 

Somewhat surprisingly, management reiterated their guidance for $220M in free cash flow in 2017. An $81M hit to $220M would still leave plenty of room to pay the $17M of dividends on the preferred shares. Of course other things won't be exactly equal, but I think this little excercise helps frame the issue a bit. For a sanity check, note that the analyst at GMP Securities yesterday estimated EBITDA post-June 2020 at $150-200M. With ~$260M of consolidated 2017E EBITDA, that's a hit of $60-110M. The analyst at RBC estimated a hit of $75M to post-June 2020 EBITDA. I don't yet know how they arrived at those numbers, but it seems we're all roughly as crazy.

 

Aimia needs to either find new airline partners fast (likely WestJet plus a US carrier - perhaps Alaskan Air or American Airlines) or take Air Canada up on their offer discussed above. The former is likely preferable to the latter, because the latter would probably be more expensive and - to a lesser extent - because AC's seat availability will gradually decrease as they allocate to their own FF program. That $2 billion liability for unredeemed flights will actually be an asset in the search for new partners, as it represents a huge volume of business, and selling an otherwise unfilled seat means high margins for airlines.

 

By laying out the post June 2020 future for the Aeroplan program, Aimia would hopefully avoid a "run on the bank" as members might otherwise feel compelled to use up all their miles in the next 3.1 years. (Note that as a last resort, Aeroplan could always re-write the rules on redemption any way they please, but at the long-run cost of pissing off members.)

 

The "run on the bank" risk is real, but with just over 3 years to go on the current contract they should have ample time to line up something that preserves the value of Aeroplan miles in the minds of consumers. The bigger risk - I believe - is that Aeroplan card holders start to shift their spending to the other cards in their wallet, causing gross billings to drop overall and particularly with Amex (16% of Aeroplan gross billings), should such a trend cause them to not renew their one-year contract. Thankfully the contracts with TD and CIBC (52% of Aeroplan gross billings) run through 2024.

 

Finally, Aeroplan does earn some fees for managing AC's FF program, but I doubt the profit (if any) on this amounts to more than $10M and is probably much less. Moreover, mgmt is now guiding to $70M in cost cuts by 2019, with some of that to be realized in 2018. And no, that's not related to the cost of serving AC, as it's coming before June 2020.

 

Mgmt is drawing $200m on their revolver (which matures in 2020) to help pay off the Jan 2018 notes early and save a tiny bit in interest expense. Somewhat surprisingly, they kept the dividend intact and renewed the common share buyback program. This may have simply been posturing, as they made the decision before AC had (today) sent their legally required notice of non-renewal and management made many hints on the call that AC might simply be "negotiating in public" with their public announcement. Now I think it makes a lot of sense to suspend the dividend (after paying the one they just declared), and either hoard cash or (even better) buy back preferred shares now trading at 10-12% yields. When asked about buying back preferred shares, they basically said no comment - but again, that was before getting the official word from AC.

 

They're also considering accelerating the existing program of asset sales. Biggest potential sale is their stake in PLM, though I'm not sure they could sell before AeroMexico agreed to an IPO. In any case, PLM is doing great and the US$ 1 billion estimate IPO value (mentioned in my writeup) puts AC's stake at roughly C$ 650M.

 

Final thought: for what it's worth, I just don't see how Calvin Rovinescu gets to his claimed $2 billion NPV over 15 years from this making this move, unless one or more of the following are true:

 

a) Aimia will fail to line up a decent contract with a new airline partner(s) and thus continue buying AC flights at whatever terms he dictates (maybe, but I doubt it)

 

b) AC can create its own full-blown loyalty coalition (which I don't think will be easy)

 

... and perhaps even sell miles to coalition partners at higher prices than Aimia was getting. I've heard anectodes of US airlines with their own internal loyalty coalitions who supposedly are able to charge a really high spread between the price they get from coalition partners for miles and their cost to provide the flights. I'm talking about a spread way higher than what Aimia gets. Said airlines don't typically disclose such metrics so who knows. In any event, Aimia deliberately lowered their own spread a few years ago as Aeroplan members were starting to really hate Aeroplan. Main complaint was lousy availability of seats ... Aimia fixed this at a cost to its gross margins, but in so doing prevented a decline in gross billings. It was the right move. Not sure how AC could extract higher prices than could Aimia.

 

The biggest $ savings for AC that I can imagine is more than offset by potential loss of $ from flights redeemed with miles earned with other coaliton partners e.g. TD, CIBC, gas stations and other frequent-purchase retailers. These likely account for well over $400M a year in revenue to AC, often for seats that would have gone unsold.

 

Not saying he's crazy. Just saying I don't get it. AC has promised to reveal the details on Sept. 19th.

[Uccmal]

Uccmal-  I applaud this effort to communicate the wisdom of suspending common dividends.  I agree with y'all on that. 

 

BUT, keep in mind that they declared this dividend before receiving legally-binding notice that AC definitely intends to not renew the contract.  Thus, their decision could have been just posturing in an attempt to seem confident in the event that AC came back to the negotiating table.  Mgmt dropped plenty of hints on the call that - at the time - they viewed this as a real possibility.

 

And yes, it's possible that they still intend to pay dividends and buyback common shares.  I'm simply suggesting that we not characterize their decision on this one most recent dividend as stupidity.  Let's not even comment on it and just say please don't declare any more divvys for now.

 

Well, I posted the letter here after I sent it.  It was unclear even as of Thursday what the order of operations was.  I dont expect a reply to the letter right now.  I expect they are getting plenty of armchair advice right now.  Management needs to get busy dealing with this contingency, and then communicate their plan to shareholders. 

 

Perhaps they will come to the realization that the common dividend has to be eliminated for now to reassure shareholders.  I only hold the prefs. so my interests are clear.  I wouldn't touch the common with a barge pole right now.  We have untested management dealing with a crisis.

 

As to the prefs.  I have a price in mind I would sell at... something around where they traded at before this news.  That would give me a 50% gain on the A's and a 35% on the B's.  Anything lower and I will ignore it.  Some bigger shareholders probably bought the prefs at par and would be mighty pissed at Aimia if they tried to buy them in below par.  If thats the case then I dont see them calling in the prefs. since its cheap financing.  They could try to shrink the float of Prefs. by buying on the open market, which could push the price up.  So, in summary I dont see them calling the prefs, ever. 

 

At this point its anything goes for the aeroplan division.  It seems unlikely that AC will come back to the table after all of these press releases.  If they do it will be to hire Aimia to administer their own program. 

 

[misterkrusty]

Got some numbers for use in your own analysis...

 

A) -$78M = incremental cash flow loss from no longer managing AC's FF program.  This is takes all the miles earned by members for flying on AC and calculates how many of these miles are redeemed for flights on AC, for flights on other Star Alliance airlines, and for non-airfare rewards.  I estimate the costs of these to Aeroplan in 2016 were roughly $110m, $33m, $26m respectively, or ~$170m total.  Meanwhile, Aeroplan received $248m in gross bilings from AC.  170-248=-78m

 

B) -$61M = cost of paying Market Fare rates on all Classic Fares purchased with miles not earned by flying AC.  This number is only relevant if Aeroplan fails to sign on a new airline partner(s), because if they do, they might get a better rate from that new airline(s).  Keep in mind that when AC offered to continue making seats available for Aeroplan members post June 2020, they weren't doing so out of kindness.  Aeroplan paid $434m to AC in 2016 for flights earned outside of AC's FF program.  This would be nearly $500m if all of it had been priced at Market Fare rates.

 

C) +$70M = Aimia's targeted cost savings in 2019

 

Clearly there are big uncertainties regarding what other Airlines Aeroplan can partner with, and how soon, and how Aeroplan card useage will change, and how TD, CIBC, and Amex will change their promotion levels for Aeroplan cards.

 

One way to look at it might be to say that if I'm right about A, B, and C, then just prior to June 2020, runrate Aimia free cash flows would have to drop from around $220m today to ~$86m before coverage drops below 1.0x on the preferred dividends.  (Bonds should be paid off by that point, thus no interest expense.)

 

Again, that's: 86m runrate FCF prior to june 2020 - 78m - 61m + 70m = 17m post-june 2020 FCF = 17m preferred dividends

[petec]

Do they disclose how many points get redeemed with Air Canada vs Star Alliance?

 

[petec]

 

One way to look at it might be to say that if I'm right about A, B, and C, then just prior to June 2020, runrate Aimia free cash flows would have to drop from around $220m today to ~$86m before coverage drops below 1.0x on the preferred dividends.  (Bonds should be paid off by that point, thus no interest expense.)

 

Again, that's: 86m runrate FCF prior to june 2020 - 78m - 61m + 70m = 17m post-june 2020 FCF = 17m preferred dividends

 

I am slightly confused by this part.  Surely if 86 is the threshold needed to cover the prefs, the maths is 220-78-61+70=151 meaning the pref dividend is well covered?

[Cardboard]

What a bad management team this is. One has to wonder why Duchesne left for some medical reason a few months back???

 

They mentioned that they had some plans in case that Air Canada would cancel the contract. Wouldn't it be time to disclose some of these?

 

Cardboard

[petec]

What a bad management team this is. One has to wonder why Duchesne left for some medical reason a few months back???

 

They mentioned that they had some plans in case that Air Canada would cancel the contract. Wouldn't it be time to disclose some of these?

 

Cardboard

 

That might be quite prejudicial to negotiations, presuming there are any!

[Uccmal]

What a bad management team this is. One has to wonder why Duchesne left for some medical reason a few months back???

 

They mentioned that they had some plans in case that Air Canada would cancel the contract. Wouldn't it be time to disclose some of these?

 

Cardboard

 

 

That might be quite prejudicial to negotiations, presuming there are any!

 

The CEO seems clueless but we shall see.  One hopes that it gets through their thick skulls that the common divvy needs to be eliminated until they have lined up replacement business.  The problem with CEOs who come from marketing backgrounds is their lack of knowledge in how markets see their companies.  The market cleary sees the common dividend gone, so get rid of it already. 

 

Anyway, enough said.  Its been a bad couple of months with my oil stocks treading water, and Aimia blowing up all at once. 

[misterkrusty]

petec- 

 

flights on other star alliance airlines are about 20% of flights but about 40% of cost of flights to Aeroplan.  They're more expensiyeve because these are mainly international flights to destinations other than the U.S.

 

yes, the pref dividends are well covered barring a severe drop in FCF.  That 220M figure is - IMO - probably optimistic because Aeroplan members will likely accelerate redemptions and use their Aeroplan credit cards less often to some degree given the uncertainty of what Aeroplan points will be worth in 3 years.  Hard to say what the extent of this will be.  Clearly if mgmt can line up attractive new airline partners soon they will put members' concerns to rest. 

 

[misterkrusty]

Cardboard & Uccmal-

 

The new CEO was the former CFO.  his background is finance, not marketing.  I don't have any reason to think he's clueless on the dividend - the last divvy was declared before AC officially declared intent to not renew, and he may have been just trying to play it cool as a result.  we shall see.

 

Aimia is undoubtedly talking to potential airline partners right now and thus can't comment on what the post june 2020 flight options will be.  I suspect that Westjet is the main potential partner.  also think they're talking to other Star Alliance airlines since they've done business with them for years and some of them (e.g. United) already have a significant number of routes that service Canada.

[Uccmal]

Cardboard & Uccmal-

 

The new CEO was the former CFO.  his background is finance, not marketing.  I don't have any reason to think he's clueless on the dividend - the last divvy was declared before AC officially declared intent to not renew, and he may have been just trying to play it cool as a result.  we shall see.

 

Aimia is undoubtedly talking to potential airline partners right now and thus can't comment on what the post june 2020 flight options will be.  I suspect that Westjet is the main potential partner.  also think they're talking to other Star Alliance airlines since they've done business with them for years and some of them (e.g. United) already have a significant number of routes that service Canada.

 

I am only going by his bio from the website:

 

David Johnston was appointed Group Chief Executive in May 2017. In this role, he is responsible for driving further development of Aimia’s global operating model and performance, with all operating divisions reporting to Mr. Johnston. Mr. Johnston is also responsible for the global business development team who plan and execute the expansion of Aimia’s full suite strategy into new territories. Prior to this Mr. Johnston was President and Chief Executive Officer, EMEA and Executive Vice President from January 2010. In this role, he had full responsibility for driving the expansion of Aimia's businesses in the EMEA region including Nectar, Nectar Italia and Air Miles Middle East as well as all of our proprietary loyalty and loyalty analytics businesses in the region. Mr. Johnston joined Aimia from PepsiCo where he spent 13 years in Marketing and General Management. He has had extensive global experience in PepsiCo in Europe, Latin America and in PepsiCo's global headquarters in Purchase, New York. He holds an Honours Degree in Business from Nottingham Trent University in the United Kingdom.

[petec]

 

flights on other star alliance airlines are about 20% of flights but about 40% of cost of flights to Aeroplan. 

 

That's quite good news.  If 40% of the value that members see in flight redemptions is with SA not AC, it's that much easier to port them to another airline (so long as it is an SA partner or equivalent).

[Cardboard]

https://www.stockwatch.com/News/Item.aspx?bid=Z-C%3aAIM-2474548&symbol=AIM&region=C

 

Nothing like the confidence of a CEO... Dumb  ::)

 

Cardboard

[misterkrusty]

well, he could say the sky is falling and we're doomed, then call westjet or united and tell them that Aeroplan will have no issues paying for flights.  that'll work just fine.

[Uccmal]

well, he could say the sky is falling and we're doomed, then call westjet or united and tell them that Aeroplan will have no issues paying for flights.  that'll work just fine.

 

Lol...