Canadian regional carrier Air Atlantic will cease operations in October, following a decision by Canadian Airlines Inter- national (CAI) to end its long-standing agreement with its regional connector.
The void will partly be filled by Inter-Canadian, another regional carrier recently sold by CAI to a group of Montreal investors. Inter-Canadian says it will take over some of Air Atlantic's routes when the airline ceases operations on 24 October and adds that it intends to hire around half of Air Atlantic's 110 pilots.
The airline will also acquire 11 ATR turboprops, one Saab 340 and three Fokker F28s, which will double the carrier's fleet size.
Air Atlantic's owner IMP Group International says that it could not continue to operate under its existing agreement with CAI, which prevented growth. "They put restrictions on our operations that prohibited us from flying larger aircraft to larger cities like Toronto," says IMP president Stephen Plummer.
Air Atlantic will keep its maintenance and technical services open for Inter-Canadian and other third parties, says Plummer, who is considering starting up as an independent airline next spring. The airline, which employs some 450 people, has offered its fleet of three Bombardier Dash 8s, five British Aerospace Jetstream 41s and three BAe 146-200s for sale.
Source: Flight International
