(Editor's note:  There has been mention of the instability of the airline industry on this blog.  This is an exerpt from an article published in yesterday's Sunday Star.)

In Mississauga, Air Canada pilot Hans Veit has similar anxiety. An Air Canada pilot for 29 years, he plans to retire when he turns 60 in eight years. He pays into a defined benefit plan that guarantees him about 60 per cent of his salary. He won't say how much he makes but notes that a pilot with 35 years of experience earns about $200,000.

But with Air Canada wobbling again – it lost $1 billion last year – and talk of bankruptcy in the air, Veit fears all bets are off, particularly with a $3.2 billion shortfall in the pension plan.

Veit considers his lifestyle modest – his wife calls him a cheapskate and his car is 10 years old – yet he wonders if he should cut back. He wants certainty about his pension and calls on Prime Minister Stephen Harper to guarantee as much as possible the viability of pension plans for companies that go bust.

The uncertainty "is causing my family to alter their spending habits," Veit says. "Everybody is saying spend, spend, to get the economy going, but I'm thinking I should be saving because I don't know what's down the road for me."

As a plan under federal jurisdiction, Air Canada's pension fund isn't eligible for Ontario's Pension Benefits Guarantee Fund. It covers pension shortfalls for employees up to $1,000 a month – a figure the province's Expert Commission on Pensions recently recommended be boosted to up to $2,500.