Risk consultancy FocusPoint partners with Air Canada to offer duty of care solution

Air Canada has partnered with risk management consultancy FocusPoint to offer the firm’s Crisis Assistance Plus duty of care solution to business travelers. CAP is fully-funded membership program that provides a suite of medical and security services to member travelers.

FocusPoint is a US-based risk management consultancy that supports clients with risk mitigation strategies, programs, processes, and protocols. It specializes in providing travel risk management and crisis response services for business and leisure travelers. Headquartered in Plantation, Florida, the firm has a global team of experienced security, investigative, and crisis response professionals. FocusPoint’s Canadian office is in Milton, Ontario, with additional international offices located in Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, South Africa, Ukraine, Russia, France, and the UK.

Now, Air Canada has announced that it will be partnering with FocusPoint to offer the consultancy’s Crisis Assistance Plus (CAP) duty of care solutions to the airline’s customers. Air Canada will offer CAP, which includes expert advice and full-funded assistance, to business travelers who purchase tickets through Air Canada’s preferred partner agencies.

CAP’s benefits includes a travel risk portal with geographic-based risk intelligence and travel alerts, 24/7 access to security, crisis, and medical professionals for assistance and advice, immediate medical attention and evacuation to a chosen hospital, and a full suite of crisis response solutions. The latter includes security responses to political threats, terrorism, violent crime, kidnapping, hijacking, and wrongful detention.While the package may be less essential for business travelers going to say, Northern Europe – who may be better served by less extensive travel insurance – the security benefits may be more relevant to frequent travelers to regions with higher security threats like parts of the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America.

CAP, however, is not an insurance program, but rather a fully-funded membership program taking effect during a period of travel.

"Air Canada's decision to distribute CAP(tm) throughout their ecosystem demonstrates social responsibility and a strong commitment to duty of care," said Greg Pearson, CEO of FocusPoint International.  "We're delighted to partner with Air Canada to enhance the travel experience of business travelers, wherever their journey takes them."

Air Canada is Canada’s largest airline, with roots dating back to 1937. In 2017, the airline carried over 48 million people, offering direct service to more than 200 airports on 6 continents. Headquartered in Montreal, Air Canada is one of the world’s 20 largest airlines, and employs 30,000 people.

Commenting on the partnership, Virgilio Russi, Senior Director of Sales, Canada, at Air Canada, commented, “As a global airline with a strong focus on business travelers, it is our goal to provide services that cater to their every need.”

“Duty of care has become front-and-centre with corporate travel managers for companies of all sizes as best practice for corporate social responsibility, and we are a step ahead of other airlines in providing our agency partners, through FocusPoint, a solution to meet this industry requirement.”

With the partnership with FocusPoint, Air Canada becomes the first Canadian airline to offer the CAP duty of care solution.