BRITISH COLUMBIA-based Kelowna Flight-craft Air Charter, has agreed to operate a low-cost airline, on behalf of bus company Greyhound Lines of Canada.
Greyhound Air is scheduled to begin operations on 15 May, with six ex-Continental Airlines160-seat Boeing 727-200s linking Vancouver, Kelowna, Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Ottawa, Toronto and Hamilton.
Kelowna will own and operate the aircraft under contract to Greyhound, which will handle marketing and sales. "Greyhound is our only customer," says Kelowna president Barry Lapointe.
Greyhound Air, will not have to take customers away from established Canadian airlines, Lapointe says. The target market, is existing customers for Greyhound's trans-Canada bus services, which account for about 35% of the 5 million passengers, the company carries each year.
Greyhound expects its share of the start-up costs to be less than C$10 million ($7.3 million). La-pointe says that the cost structure will be "very low" and he does not consider the venture to be too great a risk for Kelowna. "If it doesn't work, we'll make [the 727s] into freighters," he says.
Source: Flight International
