Canada Jetlines pausing domestic routes
The Financial Post reports in its Thursday, April 6, edition that Canada Jetlines has pressed pause on its domestic routes as it refocuses on sun destinations and leasing its planes. A Canadian Press dispatch to the Post reports that the carrier quietly halted its twice-weekly return trips between Toronto and Vancouver and Toronto and Calgary in January after launching commercial operations in September. In their place, it signed a pair of so-called wet leases, where the lessor furnishes the aircraft, crew, maintenance and insurance for another airline. Chief financial officer Duncan Bureau says, "When we had an opportunity to operate an ACMI lease that guaranteed revenue and guaranteed hours, from a business perspective, it makes sense for us to take the ACMI lease. This is very common across airlines around the world." Canada Jetlines also continues to offer two return flights per week from Toronto's Pearson airport to Las Vegas and Cancun, Mexico. The company's two Airbus A320 jetliners work both of those routes as well as the wet lease. It signed one wet lease agreement that ran from the winter holidays into March, and a second one with a different carrier that lasts from March until Sept. 5.