CanJet regains contract with Sunquest

Last Updated: Tuesday, September 26, 2006 | 3:55 PM ET

CBC News

CanJet airlines has regained a key contract to fly chartered flights for tour operator Sunquest, creating optimism that some of its recently laid-off workers can be rehired.

The airline suddenly dropped 456 employees in Halifax and 80 in Toronto on Sept. 5 when it stunned the industry with an announcement it was shutting down its scheduled passenger service.

At the time, company owner Ken Rowe issued a news release saying he would look into increasing the airline's charter operations.

However, Sunquest — one of the country's largest tour operators — also issued a release saying it would "rearrange" its service, shifting its business to two other airlines.

In an interview Tuesday, Sunquest president Andrew Dawson said that decision has changed based on guarantees that Rowe has given him that jets will be available to fly the tour operator's passengers to southern tourist destinations this winter.

"We have six flights with CanJet per week. They're all weekend travel. We also will have some shared flights with Skyservice [airline] from Halifax and St. John's," he said.

He estimated that the flights could be achieved with two aircraft with full crews.

"The security for us was that they're part of a bigger group … the IMP Group," he said. "It's not like a shoestring operation."

Dawson said other companies may be poised to sign on with CanJet.

"CanJet indicated there were several companies interested in continuing the relationship with them on a charter basis," he said.

Union waiting to see

There was no word from the company on whether that means CanJet will hire more than the original four unionized flight attendants it retained following the layoffs. However, Rowe is holding a news conference on Wednesday to discuss the charter business.

Shona Thom, the president of the CUPE local that represents flight attendants, said in an interview that the retention of Sunquest is positive news.

"It brings optimism that there's a commitment to restructure the company," she said.

"They were waiting until they had contracts before figuring out how many [employees] they do need and recalling people."

Thom said she believes the charter business will also seek commercial customers, such as the Coast Guard or other government agencies, to boost the winter tourism sales.

There's still plenty of competition for charter service in the region.

For instance, Transat, a major tour operator, isn't planning to use CanJet at this point.

Louis Giallereto, a marketing professor at McGill University, predicts CanJet will use its jets to service smaller charters to begin with.

"CanJet and WestJet will provide the bottom end of the market in terms of size of aircraft," he said in an interview.

He said it's likely less than half of the original CanJet employee base will return.

Charter airlines need fewer check-in staff, pilots and flight attendants than scheduled services, he said.

"Six flights a week is 20 or 30 hours of flying a week," he said. "Overall, CanJet will be a fraction of what they were before. If they can keep up a portion of the original operation, that's great."