Peace Air Officially done.

skyismine · Post by **skyismine** » Wed May 23, 2007 10:06 am

YEG is canada's 5th busiest airport,up till consolidation happened it was quite.Not so much anymore...Sunwest has already moved its YXD operations to YEG,and from what I gather NWI jet is moving to EG in a few months.EG is expected to add another 1 million passengers in 2007.

Canada's top 10 busiest airports by passenger volume.
1.)YYZ
2.)YVR
3.)YUL
4.)YYC
5.)YEG
6.)YOW
7.)YWG
8.)YHZ
9.)YYJ
10.)YLW

Goose757 · Post by **Goose757** » Wed May 23, 2007 10:25 am

skyismine wrote:Sunwest has already moved its YXD operations to YEG,and from what I gather NWI jet is moving to EG in a few months.=

Why did Sunwest move? Were they forced to or was it their decision? You'd think that it would be better for a charter company to be based at YXD rather than YEG.

skyismine · Post by **skyismine** » Wed May 23, 2007 10:37 am

a few things,the hanger they were using (not shell or Esso) was too small for planned expansion, the company wants to move ahead with and also the hanger is going to be sold soon from what I gather.Within 2 years the city is expected to likely sell YXD as several developers want the land and are willing to pay top buck for it.Also a american developer is pushing for it as they want to develop a 3 tower office building in the downtown core that they cant right now because of height restrictions imposed by having the airport so near the core,apparently it will consist of 3 tall tower's including one that will be Edmonton's new tallest.

MrWings · Post by **MrWings** » Wed May 23, 2007 10:45 am

WJ700 wrote:Wow, that is sad. Peace Air has a lot of history and was once a well run company. Long before the Jetstreams and sked flying, Peace was my first job where I was hired with 250 hours. I had a lot of fun there and used up a lot of my bag of luck.

Best of Luck to those out of work.

Another old timer like me.

Hey kids, Peace Air was the place to be if you were starting out. Tons of hours and they paid very well.

Things change when a non aviation person decides that pilots are a dime a dozen and tries to run a airline like a Walmart. Ego and trophies were more in control than market demand and keeping people happy.

At least the flying public won't get the old switcharoo with a noisy piston banger tickling 10000' when they expected a pressurized turboprop.

Goose757 · Post by **Goose757** » Wed May 23, 2007 11:04 am

The big question is who is going to fill the void left by Peace? What were their loads like? What were their best routes? Is CMA or someone like them going to step in a fill some of the void?

MrWings · Post by **MrWings** » Wed May 23, 2007 1:03 pm

There are probably 3 locations in Northern AB and BC that are worth serving.

And count YQU out. If you're not going to the Muni no sense in tapping that market in which WestJet and AC already service.

YQF will never keep a scheduled carrier.

CMA seems like the logical choice.

pushyboss · Post by **pushyboss** » Wed May 23, 2007 1:28 pm

I flew for Peace Air in the 80's out of High Level. We had a lot of fun back then. It is sad to see them go out this way.

MrWings · Post by **MrWings** » Wed May 23, 2007 1:36 pm

pushyboss wrote:I flew for Peace Air in the 80's out of High Level. We had a lot of fun back then. It is sad to see them go out this way.

Crazy J.M. ?????????

pushyboss · Post by **pushyboss** » Wed May 23, 2007 3:22 pm

Nope...but he was....

heropsychodreamer · Post by **heropsychodreamer** » Wed May 23, 2007 5:46 pm

http://prrecordgazette.com/News/310124.html

Starting to see a finger pointing pattern.

MrWings · Post by **MrWings** » Wed May 23, 2007 5:55 pm

Peace Air can't blame the seat restriction at the Muni. They started their sked with a Seneca and later a Navajo. These were then abandoned for the PC-12. This is what their airline business case was built on.

It was after they found that they couldn't make money with 9 seats @ $99 that they turned to the Jetstreams.

4hrstovegas · Post by **4hrstovegas** » Wed May 23, 2007 9:03 pm

CMA has been picking up the extra work. At $500 one-way from YEG to YOJ. My girl got stranded on Friday on her way to High Level from YEG. When she asked why the fare was so high, they told her they had recently raised the prices. Charming.

Goose757 · Post by **Goose757** » Thu May 24, 2007 7:37 am

4hrstovegas wrote:CMA has been picking up the extra work. At $500 one-way from YEG to YOJ. My girl got stranded on Friday on her way to High Level from YEG. When she asked why the fare was so high, they told her they had recently raised the prices. Charming.

Anyone know what the one way price from YEG to YOJ used to be with Peace Air?

Navajo Flyer · Post by **Navajo Flyer** » Thu May 24, 2007 8:48 am

Peace Air was a great place to work - prior to the recent owner. I was there when the "Coopers" bought it from Winnie. Things went downhill fast. All the experienced pilots' abandoned ship shortly therafter. I understand that the wage for flying a 185 used to be 60K a year back in the 80's when Les owned it. Let's see has the cost of living gone up since 1985? Albert was a federal mp. Has a good pension and connections with the gov't."Cooper blamed staff shortages and cuts in federal funding for the airline’s troubles." Hmm interesting

MrWings · Post by **MrWings** » Thu May 24, 2007 9:48 am

That is because when Les owned it he actually performed meaningful work there. It was his livelyhood and he understood it was the livelyhood of those people that worked for him. Turn over was rare.

Treat people like they're not valuable and they will take the first opportunity out.

Oh, and hi J ^ (not the crazy one mentioned earlier).

Roadtrippin' · Post by **Roadtrippin'** » Thu May 24, 2007 3:38 pm

Wow...just heard the news. Lots can happen in a week eh! Guess I can't say I didn't see it coming. I just hope everyone finds work and end's up someplace better. Best of luck R.W.

mr.av · Post by **mr.av** » Mon May 28, 2007 1:39 am

I enjoyed the Record Gazette's bit about not being able to fill the YPE-YEG/YXD flights... The YXD flights were ALWAYS full, and the YEG ones (when the flights weren't combined, which they often were) were full often, but not as apealing for the business day trippers. They were right, although, when he mentioned the staff shortages, that's what happens when you treat your employees poorly and dont pay them appropriately. The rampies ran Peace Air, when they said enough is enough, the company collapsed, no surprise there. The solid routes were YC-OD and PE-XD/EG, it will leave a nice void for CMA to move into, hopefully they won't take advantage of the monopoly. One thing Peace Air was nice enough not to do.

thatdaveguy · Post by **thatdaveguy** » Mon May 28, 2007 5:33 am

mr.av wrote:I enjoyed the Record Gazette's bit about not being able to fill the YPE-YEG/YXD flights... The YXD flights were ALWAYS full, and the YEG ones (when the flights weren't combined, which they often were) were full often, but not as apealing for the business day trippers. They were right, although, when he mentioned the staff shortages, that's what happens when you treat your employees poorly and dont pay them appropriately. The rampies ran Peace Air, when they said enough is enough, the company collapsed, no surprise there. The solid routes were YC-OD and PE-XD/EG, it will leave a nice void for CMA to move into, hopefully they won't take advantage of the monopoly. One thing Peace Air was nice enough not to do.

it would be interesting to see if CMA sets up a new flight YC-OD, or does what peace air did, YYC-YLL-YOD...and run a bigger plane.