Metis TransPacific Charter Airlines was a supposed airline service based in
Macau
Macau or Macao is a special administrative regions of China, special administrative region of the People's Republic of China (PRC). With a population of about people and a land area of , it is the most List of countries and dependencies by p ...
, China. It was to provide commercial air service between Macau and Vancouver BC, Canada. The air service never did launch, claiming lack of available aircraft with the ability to fulfill the transpacific flights on a non-stop flight path, in the market at startup (2006/2007).
Metis TransPacific Charter Airlines, without success, did attempt three separate launch dates between June 2006 and December 2007. Metis TransPacific Charter Airlines was given approvals from both Macau SAR, China civil aviation and Canadian civil aviation authorities.
As advertised by the company
Founded by Christopher Colbourne, this entity started to solicit passengers on April 8, 2007; its last official launch date was December 14, 2007. The airline stated on the website that '"
THE GRINCH" stole
Christmas
Christmas is an annual festival commemorating Nativity of Jesus, the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a Religion, religious and Culture, cultural celebration among billions of people Observance of Christmas by coun ...
' and the supposed launch date has been postponed until January 24, 2008. According to its website, the first flight was to
Vancouver
Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...
from
Macau
Macau or Macao is a special administrative regions of China, special administrative region of the People's Republic of China (PRC). With a population of about people and a land area of , it is the most List of countries and dependencies by p ...
, making it the first airline, charter or frontline carrier, to offer flights from Macau to Vancouver BC Canada, original launch special was at a cost of 1,500
Hong Kong dollar
The Hong Kong dollar (, sign: HK$; code: HKD) is the official currency of Hong Kong. It is divided into 100 cents. Historically, it was also divided into 1000 mils. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority is the monetary authority of Hong Kong an ...
s per seat.
Primaris Airlines had offered to operate on behalf of "Métis TransPacific Airlines."
As of February 21, 2008, the website was blank except for a notice that the page is "under construction." As of December 2010, the website was completely offline.
Existence questioned
Due to the unusually low claim price of the tickets, and the fact that the websites of
Macau International Airport
Macau International Airport is an international airport in the special administrative region of Macau, situated at the eastern end of Taipa island and neighbouring waters. It opened for commercial operations on 9 November 1995, during Portu ...
and
Vancouver International Airport
Vancouver International Airport is an international airport located on Sea Island (British Columbia), Sea Island in Richmond, British Columbia, Richmond, British Columbia, serving the city of Vancouver and the Lower Mainland region. It is lo ...
carried no mention of such an airline, even as a charter airline, it had raised many doubts which were all dismissed when none of the 1532 paid passengers registered any complaints after a full year.
Skytrax
Skytrax (originally known as Inflight Research Services) is a United Kingdom–based consultancy headquartered in London that runs an airline and airport review website.
Services
Skytrax conducts research for commercial airlines, as well as t ...
had issued an article with its CEO Eduard Plaisted claiming it was a spoof operation. This article was retracted and erased from its website.
The photo on Metis TransPacific's website was
photoshopped from a photo posted to the
Airliners.net website, with a reworked version of the logo of
Bali Air.
An article in the ''
Macau Daily Times
The ''Macau Daily Times'' () is a daily English-language newspapers published in Macau, launched on 1 June 2007.
Overview
The paper started life among one English and several Chinese and Portuguese language newspapers. It consists of betwe ...
'' expressed concerns that the airline had repeatedly postponed its first flight, that the company owner was not contactable, and that the
Civil Aviation Authority had passed the case to the Judiciary Police.
[
]
See also
*
List of companies of Macau
References
External links
* http://www.airlinequality.com/news/011107_Metis.htm
* https://web.archive.org/web/20080220010540/http://www.destination-macau.com/2007/11/metis_we_messed_up.html
* https://web.archive.org/web/20080216022427/http://www.destination-macau.com/2007/11/metis_gets_its_jets.html
{{DEFAULTSORT:Metis Transpacific Airlines
Defunct airlines of China
Defunct airlines of Macau
Airlines established in 2006
Airlines disestablished in 2008