mballb

From the newswire press release...


CanJet to Discontinue Scheduled Air Services
HALIFAX, Sept. 5 /CNW/ - CanJet Airlines, a division of I.M.P. Group
Limited, regretfully announces that it will discontinue scheduled air services
at the end of business September 10, 2006. I.M.P. wishes to thank its loyal
customers, employees and suppliers for their support and will work to minimize
the impact of this decision.

Mr. Ken Rowe, I.M.P. Chairman and CEO, said, "with the rising business
risks of operating a scheduled airline, I.M.P. has decided to suspend
year-round scheduled airline service and focus on their increasing charter
business."

CanJet will be offering alternate suitable travel arrangements for anyone
booked on their flights after September 10th or fully refunding their tickets.

Many of the affected employees will be offered positions in I.M.P.'s
expanding general aviation, aerospace or other business units.

CanJet Airlines is a division of I.M.P. Group Limited, a privately-owned
diversified group of companies headquartered in Halifax, Nova Scotia, with
extensive interests in aerospace, aviation, manufacturing, healthcare,
industrial marine products, and hotels. I.M.P. Group was honoured as one of
the "Top 50 Best Managed Companies in Canada" in 2003, 2004, and 2005.

ogmios

Interesting. Usually the news is "We're going bankrupt. Goodbye." Kudos to them for at least making a change proactively and not screwing over their existing bookings.

airbus320

Who will benefit most from the CanJet demise?

Air Canada or WestJet?

ogmios

My guess would be Westjet, and I make that guess with no data to back me up :-)

I'm just assuming that the average Canjet flyer would more naturally look to Westjet, another LCC. (well...if you can call WJ an LCC when their prices usually rival AC every time I look...)

wsommerv

I flew them when their fares to Deer Lake and Montreal made sense. West Jet doesn't fly there from YHZ so most of that traffic from Halifax will go to AC. Especially as Provincial doesn't seem to fly here anymore.

On a side not, I always found it interesting that when someone started an airline in the west they called it WestJet, but when someone started it out east they called it CanJet

I had hoped they'd do better. Ah well, at least they idn't pull a JetsGo.

tcook052

Quite. That was the first conclusion I jumped to when I heard the news. Odd though they haven't gotten around to updating their website.

As to who will benefit the most, gotta believe it'd be AC given WS more limited presence in Atlantic Canada.

ogmios

Perhaps WJ will try to step in on key routes...

airbus320

Does it have the lift to increase its activity on these routes?

ogmios

No idea, just pointing out that it may be an oportunity for them. I know they have grown quite a bit since I last used them...and I have never set foot on a CanJet flight, so I've no idea about their volume.

WJ must have *some* lift...they operate daytime charter services seasonally, when I'd expect them to operate those flights late at night...

Sebring

It's good news for AC in the short term, an opportunity for WS in the longer term. AC already offers service on essentially all Canjet routes, while WS only offers service on a handful, notably out of Toronto. WS doesn't operate into Atlantic Canada from Montreal like AC. On a few routes, like Toronto-Moncton and Toronto-Halifax where Canjet had more than one daily flight, there would appear to be an opportunity for another Westjet frequency. However, on some routes, the problem was that AC used smaller jets to operate more frequencies than an airline can sustain with a single flight a day. WS' 737-600s are probably good planes for Canjet routes, but WS doesn't have a lot of them. Atlantic Canada is very good territory for the 70-seaters and 93-seaters.

ivanhoe15

[QUOTE=wsommerv]I flew them when their fares to Deer Lake and Montreal made sense. West Jet doesn't fly there from YHZ so most of that traffic from Halifax will go to AC.

Stay tuned...

ABG

Anyway you cut the cake the consumer will lose.....

AnselmAdorne

Ken Rowe is one of the shrewdest business people in Atlantic Canada, and an orderly withdrawal is exactly what I'd expect to see from him. BTW, isn't this the second time CanJet has ceased flying as a scheduled airline? Didn't they suspend operations in late 2001 and then re-enter when air travel picked back up?

Sebring

Maybe, but it gets back to the old argument about whether money-losing operations are really offering good deals or simply subsidizing fares. If Canjet had been making money with its fares, one could have argued that the fares others charge are too high. But since it wasn't making money, it was just Rowe giving us a deal out of his own pocket, and nothing says that he has to keep on doing it.

wsommerv

Kind of. I'm pretty sure they were absorbed by Canada 3000 which then went belly up rather soon afterwards.