Air Canada executives are likely meeting to discuss how the company can take advantage of Onex Corp.’s (ONEX.TO) deal to purchase WestJet Airlines Ltd. (WJA.TO), says a business strategy professor.

“Air Canada, this morning, is absolutely getting together with Calin and some of his top lieutenants and discussing, ‘How do we take advantage of that?’” said Karl Moore, who teaches at McGill University, in an interview with BNN Bloomberg Monday.  

“That’s because that’s the nature of Calin [Rovinescu] and Air Canada – rightly so. [They’ll] go, ‘We have a great competitor out there. How can we – if they are distracted in some way, if their mind is elsewhere – how can we take advantage of that?’”  

Gerry Schwartz’s Onex is buying WestJet for $5 billion, including debt, in a deal announced early Monday. The acquisition comes nearly two decades after Schwartz’s private equity firm abandoned its bid for Air Canada – in which it tried to buy and merge with Canadian Airlines – after a Quebec court ruled it illegal.  

Moore said both WestJet and Air Canada are performing well, adding that a “sharper WestJet” is good for Canadians because it makes the country’s airline industry more competitive.

Shares of Montreal-based Air Canada, the country’s biggest air carrier, were trading nearly five per cent higher Monday as of 11:31 a.m. ET. Meanwhile, WestJet shares surged more than 60 per cent.

Air Canada was not immediately available for comment when contacted by BNN Bloomberg.