CP Air - Definition and Overview

Canadian Pacific Air Lines, also called CP Air, was a Canadian airline that operated from 1942 to 1987. In the early 1940s, Canadian Pacific purchased ten bush airlines in a short time span, finishing with the purchase of Western Canadian Airlines in 1942, to form Canadian Pacific Airlines. CP Air battled with the government owned Trans-Canada Air Lines (TCA) for international and trans-continental routes but for the most part was relegated to flying bush routes. Grant McConachie, CP Air's first president, still managed to secure flights to Amsterdam, Australia and Hong Kong which helped grow the airline's revenue from $3 million in 1942 to $61 million by 1964.

In 1979, the federal government eliminated the fixed market share of trans-continental flights for Air Canada (the successor to TCA). While this was a condition that was pressed by CP Air for a long time, it now scrambled to upgrade its fleet and prepare for increased competition to the tune of $1 billion. In 1987, due to sporadic profits in the 1980s, CP decided to sell its airline to Pacific Western Airlines for $300 million and assume the airline's debt of $600 million. In April of 1987, PWA announced the new name of the merged airlines: Canadian Airlines International.

Accidents

• December 22, 1950: (CP004) Douglas DC-3 struck a mountain in the Okanagan of British Columbia while on landing approach. 2 of 18 passengers/crew killed.
• March 3, 1953: De Havilland DH-106 Comet crashed on takeoff from Karachi, Pakistan. All 11 passengers/crew were killed.
• August 29, 1956: (CP307) Douglas DC-6B crashed when it missed the landing due to pilot error. 15 of 22 passengers/crew killed.
• July 22, 1962: (CP301) Bristol Britannia 314 crashed in Honolulu, Hawaii. 27 of 40 passengers/crew were killed.
• July 8, 1965: (CP21) Douglas DC-6B crashed near Dog Creek, British Columbia when a bomb blew its tail section away. All 52 passengers/crew were killed.
• March 4, 1966: (CP402) McDonnell Douglas DC-8-43 crashed on landing in Tokyo, Japan due to poor visibility. 64 of 72 passengers/crew were killed.
• February 7, 1968: (CP322) Boeing 707-138B crashed into aircraft and buildings in Vancouver due to zero visibility during landing. 2 of 61 passengers/crew were killed.

IATA Code

CP Air used the IATA designator code CP.

Reference

• Canadian Airlines (http://www.cbc.ca/news/indepth/airlines/canadian.html)
• AirDisaster.com (http://www.airdisaster.com/cgi_bin/airline_detail.cgi?airline=Canadian+Pacific+Airlines)