Air Canada Express - Q400
Last week Air Canada announced that in an effort to harmonize flying farmed out to regionals they would be unifying under the aegis of a new name – wait for it – Air Canada Express. I’m not suggesting for a second that creativity and uniqueness are always important but simply tacking on Express to an existing brand is just tired and a little bit lazy. South of the border there is already United Express and US Airways Express. A number of other carriers globally have used the same treatment, brand + Express. Granted the fact that Air Canada is a transportation company does earn it some respite. That is to say it’s not as stupid a name as say Holiday Inn Express but come on, Air Canada you’re better than that.
I understand the need to use a word that works in both French and English and I realize that a number of those have been used up over the years – Tango and Zip come to mind – but I refuse to believe that there is not something a little less tired than Express out there. I understand there would have been complications using the Jazz brand on flights operated by Sky Regional but I think the amount of effort it would have taken to resolve that would have been worth it. After all the Jazz brand has been built up quite strongly over the last ten or so years. Surely it’s wasteful to let it fade away? This whole exercise leads me to believe there is a concious separation being orchestrated here between the powers that be at AC and Jazz. But to what end I wonder?
