Trans-Canada Air Lines (also TCA in English, and Air Canada in French) was a Canadian airline and operated as the country's flag carrier. Its corporate headquarters was in Montreal, Quebec.
TCA was created by the Crown corporation Canadian National Railways (CNR), and launched its first flight on September 1, 1937 on a flight between Vancouver and Seattle.
The creation of TCA was partly by CNR management who wanted to expand the company into the new field of passenger aviation, and was partly by government direction. Prior to TCA, no large national airline existed in Canada. With war looming, and other nations (primarily the U.S.) experiencing major increases in the creation of passenger airlines, it was necessary to have a presence. CNR was the country's largest corporation at the time and proved an effective vehicle for the government to create a national airline.
Interestingly, TCA was also in direct competition with passenger trains operated by parent CNR, and contributed to the decline of passenger rail service as Canada entered the pioneering years of air travel. In response to CNR's creation of TCA, arch-rival Canadian Pacific Railway created Canadian Pacific Air Lines in 1942.
In 1964, an act of Parliament proposed by Jean Chrétien changed the name of Trans-Canada Air Lines to "Air Canada", which was already in use as the airline's French-language name, effective January 1, 1965. By the late 1970s, Air Canada was divested by parent CN, and the airline became a separate Crown corporation. Air Canada was privatized in 1989.
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