A group of city and county authorities has presented a business plan for a new virtual carrier, Régionair (Mont Joli), to the provincial government of Quebec, and has asked for CAD20 million Canadian dollars (USD15.1 million) in start-up funding for the first three years, Radio Canada has reported.
The start-up does not intend to pursue certification as an airline and would instead cooperate with existing regional carriers, such as Air Inuit (3H, Kuujjuaq), Air Creebec (YN, Val d'Or), and PAL Airlines (Canada) (PB, St. John's), by chartering the equivalent of two Dash 8-100s from these airlines. All of them currently operate the type, the ch-aviation fleets module shows. The partnership could also include Pascan Aviation (P6, Montréal Metropolitan), which previously floated the idea of growing its own operations to fill the market gap left by Air Canada's decison to downsize its Quebec services. For its part, Pascan Aviation operates Saab 340B, PC-12, Jetstream 32, and Beech 1900D King Air aircraft.
Régionair plans to use Mont Joli as its hub airport and would connect the airport with Montreal (most likely Montréal Trudeau) via Québec and Rivière-du-Loup, with Sept-Îles via Baie Comeau, and Îles de la Madeleine via Gaspé.
According to the tentative business plan, Régionair hopes to turn a profit of CAD1.2 million (USD905,000), assuming full utilisation of both aircraft with sufficient passenger load factors, after three years of operation.
Despite anger in the region at Air Canada for its recently announced cuts, Régionair underlined that it would seek to establish an interline or code-share partnership with the flag carrier to ensure connectivity via Montreal. Currently, around 70% of passengers from Quebec transit through Montreal as opposed to using it as a final poin of travel.
The establishment of Régionair could take up to a year, the proposal said.
The government of Quebec is currently evaluating other options of compensating for Air Canada's withdrawal, including supporting privately-founded Treq (Canada) (North Bay), subsidising existing carriers, or creating a new province-owned airline.
