The Financial Post reports in its Wednesday edition that as winter approaches, airlines are wheeling their de-icing equipment out of storage, typically a heavy truck with a large tank and boom-mounted cannon that sprays ice-melting glycol onto an aircraft's wings and fuselage. A Bloomberg dispatch to the Post says that what has been a routine process for decades typically adds 30 minutes to an aircraft's preparation for takeoff -- a costly nuisance when quick turnarounds on the tarmac at congested airports are key. Air Canada is now exploring a novel concept to thaw its aircraft, one that does away with the hundreds of gallons of glycol and crew that spray it onto waiting jets. Instead, the airline will use heated tape strips to get the plane takeoff-ready with just the flip of a switch. Canada's flagship carrier is the first airline to fit hundreds of adhesive ice-melting strips to the upper fuselage, wings and tail of an Airbus SE A320 aircraft. Electrons on the plane's surface begin to shake when animated by a current, which travels from an electric box inside the aircraft through to the strips. The movement generates heat, causing the ice to melt. The concept was developed by a Boston start-up aptly called De-ice.