Air Canada was a charter member of the Star Alliance, but would switch to the American Airlines allied One World Alliance. Two years later Air Canada would swallow its main competitor, Canadian which became an infamous example of disasterous mergers. Beyond that, a confluence of factors: the worldwide downturn in air travel, a 2001-02 recession, LCC competition (WestJet), and over expansion caused AC to enter bankruptcy. It almost joined Sabena and Swissair as a flag carriers that became extinct. In 2004, The airline made a stunning turnaround by morphing into a much more efficent low cost carrier/premium service hybrid.