Canada 3000 Airlines Inc. was a Canadian discount

charter airline Air charter is the business of renting an entire aircraft (i.e., chartering) as opposed to individual aircraft seats (i.e., purchasing a ticket through a traditional airline). Regulation Charter – also called air taxi or ad hoc – flight ...

offering domestic and international flights. It was the largest charter airline in the world at the time of its operation, with over 90 destinations worldwide, although it changed to scheduled service in 2000 after the

Canadian Airlines Canadian Airlines International Ltd. (stylized as Canadi›n Airlines or Canadi‹n Airlines, or simply Canadian) was a major Canadian airline that operated from 1987 until 2001. The airline was Canada's second largest airline after Air Canada ...

and

Air Canada Air Canada is the flag carrier and the largest airline of Canada, by size and passengers carried. Air Canada is headquartered in the borough of Saint-Laurent in the city of Montreal. The airline, founded in 1937, provides scheduled and cha ...

merger. Canada 3000 competed with Air Canada,

WestJet WestJet Airlines, is a Canadian airline headquartered in Calgary, Alberta. Founded in 1994, it is the second-largest airline in Canada and the eighth-largest airline in North America by frequency. It began operations in 1996 with 220 employee ...

, and fellow charter airline

Air Transat Air Transat () is a List of airlines of Canada, Canadian airline headquartered in Montreal, Quebec. Founded in 1986, it operates scheduled and charter flights serving 60 destinations in 25 countries. Air Transat is owned and operated by Transa ...

. In November 2001, the airline went out of business after a sharp decline in revenues following the

September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks, also known as 9/11, were four coordinated Islamist terrorist suicide attacks by al-Qaeda against the United States in 2001. Nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners, crashing the first two into ...

in the United States. There have been several attempts to restart the airline since then. The airline was headquartered in

Etobicoke Etobicoke (, ) is an administrative district and former city within Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Comprising the city's west end, Etobicoke is bordered on the south by Lake Ontario, on the east by the Humber River (Ontario), Humber River, on the ...

in the west-end of Toronto, Ontario.

History

Operations

The airline was created in 1988 by British airline

Air 2000 First Choice Airways Limited (originally Air 2000 Limited) was a British charter airline of European tour operator TUI Travel plc, based in Crawley, England until its merger with Thomsonfly to form Thomson Airways (now TUI Airways) in 2008. It ...

, initially for charter service to lease some of its airplanes for Canadian charter travel (dubbed as ''Air 2000 Airline Ltd''). The airline was denied license to operate by the National Transport Agency (NTA) because of the control and ownership of the UK firm. Air 2000 dropped out of an ownership position, and the airline started operations in December 1988. On May 1, 1989, by order of the NTA, it changed its name to ''Canada 3000''. The next year the airline acquired Vacationair and a subsidiary was created in

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

with the name Aerofiesta (not to be confused with the similarly named Aero Fiesta Mexicana, which was founded in 1993). The company's owners were the Deluce family (25%), chairman John Lecky (45%) and Adventure Tours (30%). Following the demise of Wardair, the company's goal was to become Canada's largest charter carrier, a position it attained in 1991. The cover of the Canada 3000 summer of 1997 flight schedule stated the airline was serving destinations in Belgium, Denmark, England, Fiji, France, Germany, Iceland, the Netherlands, Portugal, Scotland and the U.S. as well as Canada. In 1998, co-founder and CEO Angus Kinnear was the recipient of the

Tony Jannus Award The Tony Jannus Award recognizes outstanding individual achievement in scheduled commercial aviation by airline executives, inventors and manufacturers, and government leaders. The award is conferred annually by the Tony Jannus Distinguished Avia ...

for his contributions to commercial air transportation. As of 1998, the airline carried over 2.5 million passengers annually, and had destinations in 22 countries. In April 1998, Canada 3000 became the launch customer and first commercial operator of the

Airbus A330-200 The Airbus A330 is a wide-body airliner developed and produced by Airbus. Airbus began developing larger A300 derivatives in the mid–1970s, giving rise to the A330 twinjet as well as the Airbus A340 quadjet, and launched both designs alon ...

. In 1999, Canada 3000 purchased Holiday Travel Consultants based out of Vancouver from Richard and Shelley Carlin, which expanded to become Canada 3000's retail division under the name Canada 3000 Tickets. By the time it closed its doors, Canada 3000 had expanded its retail division to include 40 branch offices as well as three call centers in Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver. In 2000, Canada 3000 went public, raising $30 million in an IPO. In January 2001, Canada 3000 bought charter carrier Royal Aviation of Montreal, Quebec for $84 million. The company also acquired Royal Cargo Airlines' cargo division, renaming it to Canada 3000 Cargo. In March 2001 it also took over

CanJet CanJet was a Canadian low-cost airline headquartered in Enfield, Nova Scotia, Enfield, Nova Scotia and based at Halifax Stanfield International Airport. In addition to initially flying scheduled passenger service, CanJet operated charter flights ...

for $7.5 million in stock. In May 2001, following the merger of

Canadian Airlines International Canadian Airlines International Ltd. (stylized as Canadi›n Airlines or Canadi‹n Airlines, or simply Canadian) was a major Canadian airline that operated from 1987 until 2001. The airline was Canada's second largest airline after Air Canada ...

with Air Canada, Canada 3000 also started operating scheduled flights. In October 2001, one month before its demise, Canada 3000 became the first airline to operate non-stop service from North America to

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

Collapse

On November 8, 2001 the company suddenly collapsed with no warning for travelers or employees. The company filed for bankruptcy, citing a downturn in air travel during the weeks following the September 11 terrorist attacks on the United States. The fleet was left grounded at various airports around the world, leaving 50,000 vacationers stranded. September 10, 2001 was a record booking day, but within a few days air traffic declined by 50%. The airline was offered a $75 million loan guarantee from the Canadian government under the condition of a 'viable business plan' being produced. By November 7, 2001, the airline had $260 million in debt, and only had $1.49 million in cash. In secret, it had applied to the Canada Labour Board for permission to cut labour costs by 30% by closing its Royal division immediately. The Board would not approve without union agreement. Union offers to cut 700 pilot and flight attendant positions did not provide enough savings immediately and the airline applied for bankruptcy protection on November 8, while it planned to continue flying. By the end of the day, airport authorities in Toronto and St. John's, Newfoundland had seized planes under court authority and the company directors decided to cease operations. Out of bankruptcy, the Canada 3000 Cargo operation, which was still operating, was sold off and became Cargojet Airways, run by former Canada 3000 executive Ajay Virmani. In 2002, Michel Leblanc, the former owner of Royal Airlines and later a director with Canada 3000 went on to form another scheduled discount airline,

Jetsgo Jetsgo Corporation was a short-lived Canadian low-cost airline based in the Saint-Laurent, Quebec, Saint-Laurent Borough#Canada, borough of Montreal. Jetsgo served 19 destinations across Canada, 10 destinations in the United States, and 12 sche ...

, which lasted almost three years before it too collapsed and filed for bankruptcy protection on March 11, 2005. The CEO, Robert Deluce continued in the airline business with the successful

Porter Airlines Porter Airlines (stylized in Letter case#All lowercase, all lowercase as porter) is a Canadian airline headquartered at Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport in Toronto. It is the third largest airline in Canada, behind Air Canada and WestJet. Owned ...

out of

Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport is a regional airport located on the Toronto Islands in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is often referred to as Toronto Island Airport and was previously known as ''Port George VI Island Airport'' and ''Toronto C ...

. In 2005, a group of investors had planned to launch a new Canada 3000, with two

Boeing 757-200 The Boeing 757 is an American narrow-body airliner designed and built by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. The then-named 7N7, a twinjet successor for the trijet 727, received its first orders in August 1978. The prototype completed its maiden ...

s.''Flight International'', April 2005

Fleet

During its 13-year existence, Canada 3000 operated the following aircraft:

References

External links