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Air Canada Technical Services, based at the airline’s Dorval headquarters in Montreal is responsible for the maintenance inspections on the airline’s fleet of aircraft. Nearly one third of the airline’s employees were employed in this department under the direction of Lyle Rafery, Senior Vice President of Technical Services.

The operations fall under seven main branches: properties and facilities, maintenance, engineering, purchasing and supply, flight operations, corporate safety, and petroleum purchasing. This video takes a look at each of these main branches, explaining their functions within the airline.

At the time, Air Canada Technical Operations 1980 performed contract line and heavy maintenance work for other airlines, including Nordair, Air Florida, Air Jamaica, and Aero Peru. The film takes the viewer on a tour of the Dorval heavy maintenance facility including the avionics shop and engine test cells.

Although this film is nearly 40 years old, quite surprisingly many of the procedures and technological capabilities are not that far behind the aircraft maintenance capabilities of today. Reason being, jet aircraft have not advanced between the 1977 and 2017, to the same extent as they advanced between 1947 and 1977. This film really does make one appreciate just how capable and advanced Air Canada’s technical capabilities were in the day, and of course the tradition continues as Air Canada still provides world class technical services to its internal and external clients.