Joe, as you note, both the TPA and Transport Canada have taken the position that, as  the Q400 is classified “aeronautically” as part of the Dash-8 family of aircraft, and is therefore a Dash-8 for the purposes of the Tripartite Agreement.

 This is patently wrong.

 When the Dash 8 was added to the Tripartite Agreement as a permitted aircraft (for “general aviation” purposes) in 1985, the only Dash 8 plane that could have been in the contemplation of the parties was the Series 100/200 – a 37 to 40passenger plane – about half the capacity, and about 60% of the weight of the Q400, which was developed in the 1990s. Would the parties at that time have considered a plane with twice the capacity to be a Dash-8?

 The understanding of the parties at the time as to what they considered to be a Dash-8 is determinative, in law. The fact that the aircraft industry, and Transport Canada, consider the Q400 a derivative of the earlier Dash-8 models (and therefore within the family of Dash-8s) is strictly an administrative qualification and quite irrelevant to the correct interpretation of the Tripartite Agreement.

Brian Iler, chair
CommunityAIR