Canadian charter specialist CanJet ceases flight operations

Following weeks of speculation about its future, CanJet Airlines (C6, Halifax) president Steven Rowe has confirmed the airline is suspending flight operations effective immediately.

The move follows last week's announcement that CanJet's B737-800 wet-lease agreement with Air Transat (TS, Montréal Trudeau) had been downgraded to a dry-lease effectively putting the jobs of thirteen cockpit crew and thirty-five flight attendants in doubt.

“The reason that we suspended flight operations today was really two things; basically operating one aircraft is not a very profitable exercise as you could imagine,” Rowe was quoted by CBC. “And also we as a company — we haven’t had the ability to identify a market opportunity that we can move forward with confidence in obtaining and being successful.”

A subsidiary of Halifax-based IMP Group International Inc, CanJet will continue to run while exploring other potential business opportunities.

Formed in 1999, CanJet specialized in scheduled operations before switching to the charter market in 2006. In 2009, CanJet signed a 5-year capacity-purchase agreement with Transat in which CanJet would avail its fleet of B737s to the Canadian carrier for US and Caribbean operations. On the contract's expiry last year, CanJet Vacations was founded to compliment the mainline operation. However, following a dramatic slump in demand, CanJet Vacations was closed in May this year resulting in the loss of twenty-one flight crew jobs.