Air Labrador Explained

Airline:Air Labrador
Iata:WJ
Icao:LAL
Callsign:LAB AIR
Hubs:Goose Bay Airport
Focus Cities:Lourdes-de-Blanc-Sablon Airport, Quebec
Frequent Flyer:None
Alliance:None
Fleet Size:9
Destinations:24
Founded:1948
Headquarters:Goose Bay Airport
Key People:Philip Earle (President)
Brent Acreman (Director of Flight Operations)
Dan Michelin (Chief Pilot)
Ceased:June 2017

Labrador Airways Limited, operating as Air Labrador, was a regional airline based at the Goose Bay Airport in Happy Valley-Goose Bay, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. It operated scheduled daily passenger and freight services throughout Labrador and Quebec, as well as charter operations with the options of landing in remote and off strip destinations with skis, wheels and floats. The airline's main base was Goose Bay Airport, with a secondary hub at Lourdes-de-Blanc-Sablon Airport, Quebec.[1] Its motto was "The Spirit of Flight" (French: "Esprit du vol").

History

The airline was established and started operations in 1948, as Newfoundland Airways operating float-equipped aircraft from a base in Gander, Newfoundland on charter, mail and freight work to northern Newfoundland and Labrador. Since then the base of the company has moved to Goose Bay. It was purchased in 1983 by Provincial Investments Inc., owned by Roger Pike, along with associate company, Labrador Aviation Services Ltd. Air Labrador was owned by the Pike Family, but then taken over by Philip Earle in 2010. Air Labrador conducted a fantasy flight in the 1990s with a Santa Claus visit on board while it taxied the tarmac.[2] In March 2009, the company announced they were ceasing flight service to Montreal due to financial trouble. Airline service ended in Newfoundland in May 2009, two months after announcing the shut down of Montreal operations. The airline later continued to fly within Labrador and Quebec, as well as St. Anthony, Newfoundland and Labrador until its merger in 2017.

On February 3, 2012, the company announced that the Nunatsiavut Government had bought a 51% share in Air Labrador.[3]

In June 2017 Air Labrador merged with Innu Mikun Airlines to form Air Borealis.[4]

Destinations

Air Labrador operates services to the following domestic scheduled destinations (as of February 2017):[5]

Newfoundland and Labrador

Quebec

Fleet

As of July 2017 Transport Canada listed 9 aircraft registered to Air Labrador.

Fleet
AircraftNo. of aircraftVariantsNotes
Beechcraft 190021900DUp to 19 passengers
Beechcraft King Air1100 SeriesUp to 9 passengers
De Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter6300 SeriesUp to 19 passengers

See also

External links

Notes and References

  1. News: Directory: World Airlines. Flight International. 59. 2007-03-27.
  2. Web site: Flight to the North Pole. https://web.archive.org/web/20160129123747/http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6KXR0M761B0. 2016-01-29 . dead. . 2007-12-17. 2009-10-18.
  3. Web site: Inuit company buys controlling stake in Air Labrador; CBC News. 2012-02-04. 2012-02-05.
  4. Web site: Innu, Inuit join forces to create new airline for Labrador. 2017-06-16. 2017-09-16.
  5. Web site: Air Labrador Destinations . Air Labrador . 2016-01-15 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20160303185612/http://www.airlabrador.com/home/destinations.htm . 2016-03-03 .