Enerjet airline set to launch in Canada

The latest charter airline venture by a group of former WestJet executives will fly under the moniker, Enerjet, management said Monday.

The latest charter airline venture by a group of former WestJet executives will fly under the moniker, Enerjet, management said Monday.

The new airline spearheaded by Tim Morgan, the former founder and head operations for WestJet airlines, had been tentatively known as New Air and Tours.

But the Calgary-based airline, with its fleet of two Boeing 737-700s, says it now plans to begin offering charter operations throughout Canada at the beginning of next year under the Enerjet name and will launch a second tour operator brand in the third quarter of 2009, a full year later than originally anticipated.

Enerjet has already been in discussions to begin flying charter flights to Alberta’s oil sands and other major industrial projects, but no contracts have been awarded yet, management said.

Names like Canadiana have already been patented by the group for the tour operation side, but Mr. Morgan said in an interview Monday that that name is no longer in the running.

While Enerjet only has an exemption right now from Transport Canada to fly, they expect their full licensing to be in place by the end of next month.

“Going forward our new name, Enerjet, symbolizes Canada’s strength and the entrepreneurial and dynamic drive of Canadians,” Mr. Morgan said.

Originally, New Air had planned to launch as a travel tour operator flying between smaller “middle Canada” markets, such as Kelowna and Fort McMurray, to sun destinations, such as Las Vegas, in winter. In the summer, it intended to fly from those secondary markets to tourist destinations within Canada. That plan is still intact, but won’t launch until the second half of 2009.

Bill Lamberton, the head of marketing and sales for the airline, said Enerjet’s charter service to move workers to these industrial projects will become the primary focus for the airline in the near term.

“The platform has changed,” Mr. Lamberton said in an interview. “The initial platform now will be a charter operation, which is something that made it a little easier for us to get the operation flying and then roll out the second platform [the tour operator].”

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Linda Hohnholz

Editor in chief for eTurboNews based in the eTN HQ.

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