Air Canada : The Company was originally incorporated as a wholly-owned affiliate of Canadian National Railway Company by Act of Parliament on April 10, 1937 under the name `Trans-Canada Air Lines' and its French language equivalent `Lignes Aeriennes Trans-Canada'.(The Trans-Canada Air Lines Act, 1937, Chapter 43 of the Statutes of 1937). Canadian National Railway Company owned the entire capital stock of TCA, and by virtue of the Act of Parliament establishing the Airline, its corporate relationship to the railway was not that of a normal subsidiary company. The TCA Act provided that the airline would have nine directors, but only five of them were elected by the shareholders. The five so elected were also directors of the Railway. The remaining four directors were appointed by the Government of Canada.
TCA obtained its capital funds requirements from the Canadian National, but reported to the Government and Parliament directly through the Minister of Transport. Although the management and staff of TCA were quite separate from that of the railway, there were certain exceptions including the Law, Medical and Secretary's Departments of the Railway which also acted in similar capacities for the TCA. TCA's first President, Samuel J. Hungerford, was also President of the Canadian National Railways.
Close liaison was maintained between CN and TCA through the former's representation on TCA's Board of Directors and by the managements of the two companies. The general principle adopted by the CN, however, was that it should in no way attempt to exercise its influence (as owner of the Airline), to limit the scope of the latter's operations, even where these were directly competitive with those of CN.
Trans-Canada Air Lines (Atlantic) Limited, was incorporated in 1946 by way of section 20 and amendment thereto of the Trans-Canada Air Lines Act, 1937 (Privy Council Order-in-Council No. 1097, 25 March 1947). The purpose of creating the body corporate was to establish international air line routes to Europe. All 10,000 common shares were owned by TCA and the Board of Directors, Executive Officers and Operational Managers were the same for both Companies.
On May 1, 1947, TCA (Atlantic) Limited assumed responsibility for the operation (i.e. took full commercial control of the service) previously provided by the Canadian Government Trans-Atlantic Air Service.
TCA (Atlantic) Limited was dissolved on the lst of January 1952 (Section 20, Chapter 50, Statutes of Canada).
In 1953, an amendment to the Act authorized the Company to use the name `Air Canada' as a trade name for any purpose connected with the business of the Corporation. (An Act to Amend the Trans-Canada Air Lines Act, 1937, 1-2 Elizabeth II, Chapter 50, 6.(k) Assented to 14th May, 1953).
On January 1, 1965, by further amendment to the Act (P.C. 1964-955) `Air Canada' became the official name of the Company.
As a proprietary corporation, with a mandate to provide publicly-owned air transportation services both domestic and international for passengers, mail and cargo, it reported to Parliament through the Minister of Transport prior to being privatized in July of 1989.
