Air Canada
Revitalizing internal communications at enterprise scale
The Vision & Challenge
Air Canada relied on an internal newsletter—Air Canada Flash—to communicate critical updates across its ecosystem of travel agents, executives, and internal stakeholders. While the content itself was essential and time-sensitive, performance told a different story. Emails were being hosted and sent in-house, leading to low deliverability, declining engagement, and limited visibility into what was actually reaching inboxes.
At the outset, average performance sat at an 11% open rate, 1.5% click-through rate, and just 70% delivery—a major issue for a communication channel intended to keep key stakeholders informed and aligned. The challenge wasn’t volume or relevance of content; it was infrastructure, scheduling, and trust at the inbox level.
My role was to diagnose what was holding performance back while continuing to deliver the required updates reliably to a complex internal audience.
The Build & Launch
The first step was a full audit of Air Canada Flash’s email infrastructure. This quickly revealed DMARC and domain authentication issues that were impacting sender reputation and inbox placement. By correcting domain configurations and aligning SPF, DKIM, and DMARC settings, we rebuilt trust with inbox providers and stabilized deliverability.
With the technical foundation in place, we introduced a clear sending schedule that balanced consistency with urgency—ensuring stakeholders knew when to expect updates without overwhelming inboxes. Content from across internal teams was organized into a repeatable structure, improving clarity and scannability while preserving the required messaging.
This combination of technical remediation, structured cadence, and lifecycle-aware delivery transformed Air Canada Flash from a struggling internal newsletter into a reliable communication channel at enterprise scale.
The Strategy & Execution
The first step was a full audit of Air Canada Flash’s email infrastructure. This quickly revealed DMARC and domain authentication issues that were impacting sender reputation and inbox placement. By correcting domain configurations and aligning SPF, DKIM, and DMARC settings, we rebuilt trust with inbox providers and stabilized deliverability.
With the technical foundation in place, we introduced a clear sending schedule that balanced consistency with urgency—ensuring stakeholders knew when to expect updates without overwhelming inboxes. Content from across internal teams was organized into a repeatable structure, improving clarity and scannability while preserving the required messaging.
This combination of technical remediation, structured cadence, and lifecycle-aware delivery transformed Air Canada Flash from a struggling internal newsletter into a reliable communication channel at enterprise scale.
The improvements to Air Canada Flash were night and day. Fixing our deliverability issues and bringing structure to our sends made a massive difference in engagement. The newsletter is now a reliable, high-performing channel for internal communication.
Air Canada
53% opens, 6.4% CTR, enterprise-scale
