The Canadian marketplace has always been dominated by Air Canada (and Trans-Canada Airlines before it). Canadian Pacific (later CP Air) was the second force international airline whilst 5 regional airlines operated secondary routes and Wardair was a persistent thorn in the major’s sides, bending charter rules to compete as best it could. Coming deregulation saw a quick consolidation between 1986 and 1988 which left the new Canadian Airlines as the primary competitor to Air Canada. Wardair meanwhile, finally able to compete on scheduled services, over-expanded and was forced into a merger with Canadian in 1989. Canadian was still not a fully successful carrier but backed by its partner American Airlines it fought a takeover battle with the newly privatised Air Canada, which it eventually lost, leaving the latter as the only surviving airline of the pre-deregulation era.
Missing from the below analysis are Air Canada’s various offshoots Tango, Zip, Jetz and now Rouge.
