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Air Canada CE Calin Rovinescu defended the airline’s offer to buy back the Aeroplan loyalty program it spun off more than a decade ago, saying it’s the only bid that will relieve Aeroplan owner Aimia of the C$2b liability represented by the points members have in the plan. Rovinescu made his comments 2 days after Air Canada went public with an offer of $250m for Aeroplan. The consortium making the bid includes existing Aeroplan bank partners Toronto Dominion Bank and Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce as well as Visa Canada Corp. The choice for Aimia’s board, he noted, is to “reject this proposal and adopt a go-it-alone strategy for Aeroplan, maintaining the $2b liability without Air Canada as a redemption partner, or accept our consortium proposal, which looks after all their stakeholders.” <br/>

Delta Air Lines and United Continental are offering free flights for immigrant families detained and separated under president Donald Trump’s “zero-tolerance” crackdown on illegal border crossings. The airlines are providing vouchers for one-way domestic service so that parents and children that have been released can travel to sponsors or relatives in the US. A federal court ordered the govt to reunite the families by July 26. After that, the families are responsible for any transportation costs. United, American Airlines and Southwest Airlines asked the federal govt last month not to use their aircraft to transport children that were being separated from their parents. <br/>