John Gradek

And those regulators have got to be in place before we in fact sign a contract with a third party, you know, uh, lease holder for 99 years on Pearson.

John Gradek is here.

He's a lecturer in aviation management at McGill University, and he's a former senior executive with Air Canada.

I brought up, John, a few minutes ago here, blacklocks.ca says that airport leases currently in place are not scheduled to expire until 2052 at the earliest.

You know?

Al- all right.

Um, John Gradek is here, lecturer in aviation management at McGill University and former senior executive with Air Canada.

How do you react to people who say there's a sovereignty aspect to this, and at least if we're gonna do it, it should be Canadian investors?

Well, let's talk more about what this plan could actually look like.

Is this going to be a huge shift in how operations are done at the major airports? Joining me now to talk more about this and the announcement is John Gradek, aviation expert and faculty lecturer at McGill University.

John Gradek, great to have you back on the show.

Oh, my pleasure to be here.

Um, now you're in the doldrums.

Which John Gradek says means despite fuel costs cutting deeply into profit, they'll likely need to lower fares to compete for business.

There will be price wars in Canada, which means revenues will come down, which is not what you need when you are stuck with a fuel bill that keeps climbing.

Part of the problem for airlines, brand loyalty, or the lack of it when Canadians are searching for cheap flights.

I still remember this story and, and watching over and over, uh, what happened on that tarmac when, uh, that firetruck ran into the Air Canada plane after it had landed.

Uh, John Gradek, of course, who you hear from time to time here on the show and on CJD, he is of course over at McGill.

He's a faculty lecturer there in Operations and Integrated Aviation Management.

So John, uh, I, I remember, I seem to remember at the time fairly early w- after the investigation began, this idea of flight controllers because, uh, the last thing I remember w- watching the video was one guy yelling at that truck crossing the runway to, "Stop.

So message is out, you know.

Don't try at the airport because it's not gonna work.

John Gradek.

John, thanks so much.

Russia has since been trying to get the plane back, but a judge recently ruled that it'll stay right where it is.

Host Karen Ceolin is speaking with aviation expert John Gradek about what could happen to the plane moving forward, and if it's even worth holding onto at the airport.

What have the Russians to this point said about all this? How have they responded to, to this unfolding saga, if you will?

They're not very happy campers.