Air Canada's New Safety Video | Nouvelle vidéo de sécurité d'Air Canada

October 18, 2022 8:50 AM

Air Canada's newest safety video is heralded as showcasing Canada's natural beauty, creatively fulfilling the need to share flight safety information without ever showing the inside of an aircraft, and following in the footsteps of other airlines' novel approaches to security briefings.

Created in 2019, the release of the video was delayed by the pandemic. It is a departure from Air Canada's past safety videos, which focused on passengers completing appropriate safety actions while in a plane. Instead, the nearly six minute video shows a number of beautiful scenes from across Canada, integrating safety information and actions into a bilingual ode to Canada.

posted by narcissus_and_ambrosia (26 comments total)

It's not that terribly new. I saw it when I flew from Toronto to DC in June. I do like the little touches that reference it is in fact a safety video--the woman putting on her plane seatbelt as she drives sled dogs, IIRC?--and it feels very Canadian to really play up the natural beauty angle like this.
posted by Kitteh at 8:58 AM on October 18, 2022 [3 favorites]

how did the flight crew get on top of that mountain?

wait, nevermind, they're a flight crew. It'd be weirder if they were a boat crew.
posted by Merus at 9:09 AM on October 18, 2022 [7 favorites]

Reminds me of the Singapore Airlines safety video.
posted by Hatashran at 9:26 AM on October 18, 2022 [1 favorite]

Yeah, I saw this when I first flew back to Canada, which would've been, like, a week after the initial lifting of travel restrictions, so more than a year ago now. It's a little goofy, but pretty.

One thing I noticed flying Delta this past weekend is that they now do the little intro to the instructions in ASL as well as English (and Spanish subtitling). (I assume it's ASL, anyway. I recognized "thank you" and the finger-spelling of "Delta" and it sure looked like a sign for flying in between.)
posted by praemunire at 9:27 AM on October 18, 2022

This video makes me simultaneously proud to be Canadian, and annoyed that Air Canada continues to exist as a private company instead of being re-nationalized.
posted by Paladin1138 at 9:31 AM on October 18, 2022 [9 favorites]

I LOLed when the cowboy stopped to review the safety card
posted by Banknote of the year at 9:32 AM on October 18, 2022 [4 favorites]

This video makes me simultaneously proud to be Canadian, and annoyed that Air Canada continues to exist as a private company instead of being re-nationalized.

Yeah, it's a little difficult to like anything Air Canada is associated with at present given that the company is being driven into the ground by its current ownership.

I've been trying for two weeks to upgrade a reward flight - IE, "give the company money" - and it has been literally half a dozen calls collectively amounting to more than thirteen hours of phone hold time. I'm not sure why I'm bothering given the moderately high probability Air Canada will cancel the flight with no notice anyway per their usual business practices these days.
posted by mightygodking at 9:57 AM on October 18, 2022

I loved the part where they demonstrated yoga moves you should do in case of an emergency
posted by Is It Over Yet? at 9:59 AM on October 18, 2022 [1 favorite]

I LOLed when the cowboy stopped to review the safety card

I was totally hoping it was going to show the safety features for a horse though.

Are safety videos usually nearly 6 minutes long? That had some great photography and was mildly amusing, but it seemed awfully long to me.
posted by aubilenon at 10:04 AM on October 18, 2022

This seems rather like the Icelandair safety video, outdoor yoga and all. (Not that I object to prettier safety videos, mind.)
posted by ASF Tod und Schwerkraft at 10:08 AM on October 18, 2022 [2 favorites]

For those interested, Lebanon's Middle East Airlines (MEA) similarly plays up the natural beauty of Lebanon.
posted by Ahmad Khani at 10:12 AM on October 18, 2022 [1 favorite]

This is a good trend. I caught the Icelandair one on flights a few weeks ago and it was the first I'd seen of this kind of safety video. It was fun to watch. It made me want to visit Iceland. I actually paid attention to the information.
posted by Clinging to the Wreckage at 10:16 AM on October 18, 2022

I have seen this video several times now in-flight, and while I did watch it the first time, since then, I ignore it just as thoroughly as I do less pretty safety videos.
posted by jacquilynne at 10:28 AM on October 18, 2022 [3 favorites]

Yes! A FPP after my own heart! I hadn't seen this one yet and it's great. Thank you.

I'm kind of liking these national carriers showing off their country and culture. Air France updated theirs last year (and kept some of the cast from the previous one). The Clouzot freakout in the middle is fun, too.

And it looks like Air New Zealand has a newer one celebrating Maori culture which is fantastic.
posted by JoeZydeco at 10:36 AM on October 18, 2022 [2 favorites]

Way to think outside the fuselage.
posted by gestalt saloon at 11:14 AM on October 18, 2022

(Is United still playing 'Rhapsody in Blue' as their planing/deplaning theme song? I recall they paid a bloody fortune for the rights.)
posted by Insert Clever Name Here at 12:56 PM on October 18, 2022

You better believe it. George Gershwin even makes a cameo in the video. UA pays the Gershwin estate $300,000 a year for the rights.
posted by JoeZydeco at 1:35 PM on October 18, 2022 [2 favorites]

Omg Airline safety videos have elevated it the mundane to an art form. I’ve seen one performed as a ballet.. EVA air Taiwan.

This one is my all time air Canada fave… from the asmr level spoken English, the gay guys acting like they’ve never seen a plane before, posh Indian Canadian family, and everyone is packing bagels beavers and lobster with hockey equipment it’s so fukkin Canadian I die.
posted by St. Peepsburg at 3:18 PM on October 18, 2022 [1 favorite]

My favorite from infrequent international air travel is EVA's safety dance.
posted by Scarf Joint at 4:14 PM on October 18, 2022 [1 favorite]

Are safety videos usually nearly 6 minutes long? That had some great photography and was mildly amusing, but it seemed awfully long to me.

I don't know, but I will say that the sequence of videos that played at the beginning of my recent United flight seemed interminable. I just want to watch a movie :(
posted by Expecto Cilantro at 4:25 PM on October 18, 2022

Back in 2019 Korean Air had a kpop safety video featuring BoA and SuperM.
posted by needled at 5:18 PM on October 18, 2022

This reminds me of the Qantas safety video from 2018. It's even got the hiking bit. But the 2020 safety video celebrating 100 years of Qantas is my favorite of theirs.
posted by rednikki at 5:20 PM on October 18, 2022

→ UA pays the Gershwin estate $300,000 a year for the rights.

It's been in the public domain since 2020, so I'm not sure why
posted by scruss at 5:26 PM on October 18, 2022

Whenever the flight attendants do the safety speech I always put down my book and look at them attentively. There is nothing new in the routine, I have seen it three thousand times, but I still would feel so weird and rude ignoring them. The videos don't have quite the same draw for me, but I still feel like I must watch them.
posted by The corpse in the library at 6:51 PM on October 18, 2022

Followed by many minutes of banking commercials played at full volume that you can't turn off. I watch attendants and didn't realize it was a safety video.
posted by jeffmik at 7:28 PM on October 18, 2022

I only watched the first 52 seconds because after seeing the seats in the forest all I could think of was a burning plane behind them and scattered shrapnel. I dunno man...
posted by warriorqueen at 2:23 PM on October 20, 2022