AIR CANADA MAKES AEROPLAN ITS OWN DIVISION
By Adnews Staff
In an effort to increase efficiency and revenue, Air Canada has moved its Aeroplan loyalty program into its own division. "Our objective is to structure Aeroplan in a more efficient and focused manner in order to further improve the quality of the program's customer service levels and incentives and to increase and further leverage our commercial partnerships," said executive vice president of corporate development and strategy Calin Rovinescu. The goal of this move is to use the purchasing power of the plan's membership to generate more revenue and increase brand loyalty. Aeroplan will expand on current partnerships and seek new ones. It will also move into new business areas such as relationship management and advisory services. Another move will be to construct an online shopping mall at which loyalty points can be spent on merchandise and other non-air services. Based in Montreal, the Aeroplan division will be lead by Rupert Duchesne in the capacity of Aeroplan president. He was most recently chief integration officer of Air Canada and Canadian Airlines. If all goes well, the airline may spin-off the Aeroplan division into a separate, publicly-traded company, although Air Canada would retain a majority stake.