Olympic Games increasing European traffic
to Montreal, Ottawa and Toronto.
By the late 1970s, CP’s international
routes had expanded substantially, due
to deregulation of the Canadian airline
industry. In the late 1970s, domestic
services grew substantially.
The October 1978 schedule promoted
CP Air’s ‘gateway’ international flights (for
example, gateway to the Far East) connecting
with other airlines.
In March 1979, the first of 12 McDonnell
Douglas DC-10-30s was delivered and
started to replace the DC-8s. On June 1
that year, CP Air started a new no-frills,
all-economy service called SkyBus/Aérobus
serving Vancouver-Edmonton-Calgary-
Winnipeg-Toronto-Montreal. SkyBus featured
Canada’s lowest one-way fares at the time.
Meals, headsets and newspapers were not
included and there was limited baggage
allowance. Two DC-8-63s: C-FCPP and
C-FCPS were used for this operation.
In October 1980, Empress Class Service
was introduced on South Pacific, Asia and
Vancouver-Toronto non-stop flights. It
offered free drinks, newspapers, headsets
and a choice of meals for full economy
paying customers, who were seated
immediately behind first class. The middle
seat of each three was kept blocked off. It
was added to all Canadian and overseas
flights by mid-1981 and the marketing name
SkyBus was dropped.CHARTERS
In 1980, European seasonal charters under
the CP Holidays brand were launched and
flown to nine British and German destinations
from Toronto and five from Vancouver,
including Belfast, Birmingham, Cardiff, London
Gatwick, Luton, Manchester, Newcastle,
Prestwick and Frankfurt. These were served
by DC-8s and 747s. In April 1981, charters
from Edmonton to Düsseldorf, Frankfurt and
Manchester were introduced. The autumn
schedule added Vancouver-Dusseldorf,
Edmonton-Prestwick and Toronto-Munich.
Captain W C ‘Cam’ Cross made his first
DC-8 flight in February 1964 after previously
flying Britannias. The inaugural trans-Canada
Britannia flight on May 4, 1959 had taken
7hrs 56mins routing Vancouver-Winnipeg-
Toronto-Montreal. In DC-8 CF-CPF in
September 1964, he flew the same route
in 5hrs 56mins. He had previously flown a
Britannia from Vancouver to Honolulu in 8hrs
30mins. The same trip return in a DC-8 only
took 11hrs 12mins. The speed and efficiency
of the DC-8 spelled the demise of CP’s large
veteran propliners.
CP had a family atmosphere among
employees. Exemplifying this, four members
of the same family flew DC-8s for the
company: a father, Captain Randall, and his
three sons First Officers H E Randall and R
B Randall, and Second Officer J Randall.The new long-range DC-10 widebody
was selected to replace the DC-8 at CP
Air in 1979. The DC-8-43s were retired in
1980/81 (most were sold for scrap), the
final -50 series example in 1982 and the
DC-8-63s in 1983, with the last four sold
to Worldways of Toronto. The April 1982
schedule shows that all the European
charters were exclusively operated by CP
Air’s widebodies, routes initially dominated
by the DC-8s.
The Douglas DC-8 proved to be pivotal
in the growth of Canadian Pacific Airlines. It
dramatically improved longer-established and
international routes by increasing capacity,
speed and efficiency. New destinations were
added, and the passenger experience was
taken to a higher level with the amenities of
the spacious jetliner – the quiet comfort of
the ride (compared to propliners) and the
well-established attention to detail for which
the airline was renowned. The DC-8 served
with CP for more than 20 years, flying to five
continents. As its first jet, the iconic Douglas
DC-8 played an important part in the airline’s
development. CP Air was bought by Pacific
Western Airlines of Calgary in 1987 and
merged to form Canadian
Airlines International
until the entire outfit was
bought by Air Canada
in 2001.http://www.aviation-news.co.uk 25The SkyBus/Aérobus service flew Vancouver-Edmonton-Calgary-Winnipeg-Toronto-Montreal.
Tom Kim20-25_cp_airDC.mfDC.mfDC.mfDC.mfDCDC.indd 25 05/07/2018 16:59