Zip was a Canadian discount airline headquartered in Hangar 101 at

Calgary International Airport Calgary International Airport , branded as YYC Calgary International Airport, is an international airport that serves the city of Calgary, Alberta, Canada. It is located approximately northeast of downtown and covers an area of 20.82 squar ...

Calgary Calgary ( ) is the largest city in the western Canadian province of Alberta and the largest metro area of the three Prairie Provinces. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806, maki ...

Alberta Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest T ...

. It was launched by Air Canada as a no-frills

subsidiary A subsidiary, subsidiary company or daughter company is a company owned or controlled by another company, which is called the parent company or holding company. Two or more subsidiaries that either belong to the same parent company or having a ...

in September 2002. It operated a fleet of 12

Boeing 737 The Boeing 737 is a narrow-body aircraft produced by Boeing at its Renton Factory in Washington. Developed to supplement the Boeing 727 on short and thin routes, the twinjet retains the 707 fuselage width and six abreast seating with two u ...

aircraft, each painted in a bright, neon colour (

blue Blue is one of the three primary colours in the RYB colour model (traditional colour theory), as well as in the RGB (additive) colour model. It lies between violet and cyan on the spectrum of visible light. The eye perceives blue when ...

fuchsia ''Fuchsia'' () is a genus of flowering plants that consists mostly of shrubs or small trees. The first to be scientifically described, '' Fuchsia triphylla'', was discovered on the Caribbean island of Hispaniola (Haiti and the Dominican Republic ...

green Green is the color between cyan and yellow on the visible spectrum. It is evoked by light which has a dominant wavelength of roughly 495570 nm. In subtractive color systems, used in painting and color printing, it is created by a combin ...

, and orange) with a single class of service. The subsidiary was headed by former

WestJet WestJet Airlines Ltd. is a Canadian airline headquartered in Calgary, Alberta, near Calgary International Airport. It is the second-largest Canadian airline, behind Air Canada, operating an average of 777 flights and carrying more than 66,130 ...

CEO, Steve Smith.Pigg, Susan.
Zip, WestJet in fare war that could hurt them both ; Move follows competition bureau ruling Battle could intensify when Zip flies eastward
" ''

Toronto Star The ''Toronto Star'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper. The newspaper is the country's largest daily newspaper by circulation. It is owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of Torstar Corporation and par ...

''. January 22, 2003. Business C01. Retrieved on September 30, 2009. As a direct competition to Canada's leading

low-cost carrier A low-cost carrier or low-cost airline (occasionally referred to as '' no-frills'', ''budget'' or '' discount carrier'' or ''airline'', and abbreviated as ''LCC'') is an airline that is operated with an especially high emphasis on minimizing op ...

, Zip flew mostly between the western cities of Abbotsford,

Edmonton Edmonton ( ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Alberta. Edmonton is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Alberta's central region. The city an ...

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the city, up from 631,486 in 2016. ...

Saskatoon Saskatoon () is the largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Saskatchewan. It straddles a bend in the South Saskatchewan River in the central region of the province. It is located along the Trans-Canada Hig ...

, Regina and

Winnipeg Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the province of Manitoba in Canada. It is centred on the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, near the longitudinal centre of North America. , Winnipeg had a city population of 749 ...

. Zip ceased operations in September 2004 when Air Canada resumed a full schedule on its western routes.

Branding

Zip was known for branding its advertising with 3 character words. Among them, "yuk" was printed on the air sickness bags, "bag" was printed on the personal baggage tags, and "yum" was printed on the napkins distributed with beverages on board. Large print advertisements were erected in many cities, which simply said "fly" and the company's website below, 4321zip.com. Today, the website redirects to the official Air Canada website, along with other subsidiaries' websites.

Destinations

Zip Boeing 737-200; C-GCPN, July 2003 (6169024761)

As of August 2004, Zip served the following destinations:

Fleet

Zip operated a fleet consisting entirely of

Boeing 737-200 The Boeing 737 is a narrow-body aircraft produced by Boeing at its Renton Factory in Washington. Developed to supplement the Boeing 727 on short and thin routes, the twinjet retains the 707 fuselage width and six abreast seating with two u ...

aircraft, all obtained from the existing Air Canada fleet.

Livery

Zip's aircraft were painted in bright, neon colours on the fuselage, tail, and engines. Specifically, the colours

, and orange were painted. The fuselage was painted in the aircraft's colour, except for a white silhouette of a

bee Bees are winged insects closely related to wasps and ants, known for their roles in pollination and, in the case of the best-known bee species, the western honey bee, for producing honey. Bees are a monophyletic lineage within the superfami ...

, with white dots trailing it. These dots extended to the back to the fuselage, leading to the tail of the aircraft, where Zip's logo was painted. On the engines, Zip's website, ''4321zip.com'' was printed in white. Towards the end of the airline, some aircraft were painted in a different livery. The main fuselage was white, with a small bee on the side of the nose. The ''4321zip.com'' website was printed on the fuselage as well. The tail sectioned retained the same logo but with striping on the back. These were also in the original colors of blue, fuchsia, orange and green. One aircraft was painted in a special Christmas livery with a red nose, a smile under the nose, and a large red & white striped scarf stretching down the fuselage.

References

External links