Air Canada is finding some support from lenders as it struggles to solve its financial Rubik's Cube, the cash-strapped airline's chief executive said on Wednesday.

Tight credit markets have complicated discussions with the lenders that Canada's largest airline has approached for short-term financing, CEO Calin Rovinescu told reporters.

"There is a certain level of support. We have some very specific targets of what we need to raise as far as capital. We continue to be confident, but the discussions are ongoing," he said.

The airline was also able to offer some "clarifications" in weekend talks with its largest union, which recently voted down a tentative contract deal, but is scheduled to hold another vote next week, Rovinescu said.

Rovinescu declined to give specifics on the union talks, citing the ongoing ratification vote. Members of the 12,300-member machinists union narrowly rejected a tentative deal last week amid fears about job security.

Labour peace at the airline is critical to it securing government approval of a moratorium on payments into its pension fund and a deal with the lenders -- a situation Rovinescu compared to a Rubik's Cube puzzle.

"To get the colours all lined up you've got to turn it around and occasionally move backward and forwards to get the right outcome," he said.

He also sounded an upbeat note on the status of Air Canada's talks on getting pension relief from the federal government before the carrier is scheduled to make large funding payments at the end of July and in early August.

"We've had very good discussions with Ottawa about that. This is a process that has to be done at the same time (as getting union agreements and new financing)," he told reporters on at Vancouver Airport on Wednesday.

Rovinescu was at the airport to help unveil a new Boeing 777 aircraft painted to advertise the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, of which Air Canada is a major sponsor.

Wednesday's Olympic event, held inside a hanger with athletes, acrobats and a man walking around in an inflatable aircraft costume, offered a colourful contrast to recent news surrounding the airline's financial struggles.

Rovinescu and organisers of the Winter Olympics said they were confident Air Canada would be able to meet its sponsorship obligations -- such as providing air travel to Games officials -- even as it struggles to reorganise its finances and stay out of bankruptcy protection.

"What you're seeing here is that Air Canada sees the Olympics as a vital part of their own business," said John Furlong, chief executive of the Vancouver Organising Committee.

Neither Air Canada nor VANOC have released financial details of the sponsorship deal. The plane unveiled on Wednesday will be used primarily on international flights to Europe and Asia, officials said.

(Reuters)