Recently globeandmail.com ran an interesting interview with Rupert Duchesne, CEO, Groupe Aeroplan Inc. The reporter, Karl Moore, asked Duchesne to talk a bit about the history of Aeroplan. Duchesne mentioned that after the program broke from Air Canada, they decided that the program needed to lure leisure travelers, not just business travelers, and to promote the program with people who aren’t travelers at all. “Today, Aeroplan in Canada has about 4.5 million active members, but only about 250,000 of those will be qualified as frequent flyers. In other words, they’d be Prestige, Elite or Super Elite in Air Canada’s tier system. Approximately half a million would be occasional flyers. So, less than a quarter of our total membership these days has anything to do with regular traveling.”

Another observation made by Duchesne involved loyalty. “One thing that’s very interesting is that when they [Aeroplan members] do a redemption for an airfare or a gift card or an iPod they actually become more loyal afterwards for about a six-month period.”