When Canada 3000 ceased operations more than two decades ago, on this very day – November 8 – it had more than 90 destinations worldwide, and more than 4,500 employees.
It also had a thriving tour operator division, the future of which was suddenly up in the air after Canada 3000’s abrupt shutdown.
The headline for this edition of ‘It Happened This Week’ is: ‘Will bankruptcy trustee be able to find buyer for profitable C3 Holidays?’
As Travelweek notes, travel agencies shifted into high gear with the news of Canada 3000’s grounding: “Not only did many travel counsellors once again have to work long hours to get stranded passengers back home and rebook clients with other carriers for no extra revenue, they lost a supplier which paid generous commissions.”
Of course the industry was still reeling from 9/11 when this story ran. Canada 3000 pulled off a triple merger with CanJet and Royal Airlines earlier in the year but couldn’t make it through the turbulent months following 9/11.
By the time this story ran, then-TICO CEO Michael Pepper had frozen the bank accounts of Canada 3000 Holidays. As Travelweek wrote: “It is not yet clear what will happen to the tour operation. Canada 3000 Holidays was profitable and the trustee may be able to find a buyer.”
Days later, Canada 3000 Holidays followed the airline into history. As Travelweek noted in a follow-up article, David Hardouin did everything he could to keep Canada 3000 Holidays alive, but a fax sent by ACTA and the B.C. registrar to all travel agents said the Vancouver-based wholesaler had “exhausted all options” to keep the company viable.
Did the headline appear in Travelweek in 1996, 2001 or 2013?
Fill out the contest form below, with your guess and your email address. We’ll announce the answer and the winner next week, along with the next contest headline. Last week’s contest headline about major hotel chains reporting more bookings from the Internet than GDSs for the first time, ran in November 2006. Our winner for Week #36 is Nena Batoz with YYZ Travel Group in Toronto. Congratulations Nena!
Every Wednesday in Travelweek Daily, we’re posting an article from Travelweek’s archives, spanning the years 1973 – 2023. Guess the correct year the story ran, and you could win a $50 Amazon gift card. There’s a new headline and a new chance to win every single week.
