Wardair Canada
| Wardair Canada | |
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| IATA code : | WD |
| ICAO code : | WDA |
| Call sign : | WARDAIR |
| Founding: | 1952 |
| Operation stopped: | 1990 |
| Seat: |
Mississauga , Canada
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| Turnstile : | |
| Home airport : | Edmonton Airport |
| Fleet size: | 15th |
| Aims: | North America, Europe, Caribbean, Hawaii |
| Wardair Canada ceased operations in 1990. The information in italics refer to the last status before the end of operation. | |
Wardair Canada was a Canadian charter airline that started operating scheduled flights in the spring of 1986 and was incorporated into Canadian Airlines International in January 1990 . The airline was named after its founder Maxwell William Ward .
history
Maxwell W. Ward owned the Yellowknife- based Polaris Charter Company from 1946 to 1949 , which carried out transport flights in the Canadian Northwest Territories with a De Havilland DH.83 Fox Moth . In 1952, Ward took up this concept again and founded the airline Wardair Limited in Edmonton . Flight operations began on June 6, 1953 with a brand new de Havilland Canada DHC-3 . Initially, Wardair only used single-engine aircraft of the types DHC-3 Otter and DHC-2 Beaver on demand and supply flights in northern Canada. Twin-engine Bristol 170 freighters expanded the fleet from 1958.
In the spring of 1962 Wardair rented a Douglas DC-6B ( license number : CF-PCI) from Canadian Pacific Airlines to offer Affinity Group charter for clubs and associations. The first deployment took place on May 10, 1962 between Calgary and Ottawa . The first international charter flight took place on June 22, 1962 from Edmonton to Copenhagen . In the summer the aircraft was mainly used on routes to Europe. Most of the winter destinations were in California and Mexico . The company introduced the name Wardair Canada for international flights, but this only became the official company name in 1975. On April 25, 1966, the company received its first jet aircraft , a Boeing 727-100 (CF-FUN), replacing the leased DC-6. In the following year Wardair went public and thereby financed the procurement of two Boeing 707-320C , which were used in long-haul charter from 1968. Delivery of the first wide-body aircraft of the type Boeing 747-100 (CF DJC) on April 23, the 1,973th
In 1972, Canada UK Travel (from 1976 Wardair UK ) and International Vacations (from 1976 Wardair Holidays ) were the first subsidiaries through which Wardair Canada marketed its own package tours and city tours . London and Manchester then developed into the most important international destinations and were served by Toronto , Vancouver , Winnipeg , Calgary and Edmonton. Hawaii also became an important market. With Wardair Hawaii , Wardair Jamaica and Wardair Equipment , further subsidiaries were established in the mid-1970s.
On January 1, 1976, the group of companies was restructured and the holding Wardair International Limited was founded, under whose roof the airline Wardair Canada and all other subsidiaries were combined. The Wardair International holding moved its headquarters to Mississauga in the same year . The Edmonton Airport remained the home base of the airline wardair , although most connections at this time from Toronto-Pearson went out. After the takeover of two McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30s , the international routes were served exclusively by wide-body aircraft from 1978 onwards. In October 1979 Wardair stopped the traditional flight services in northern Canada and then used propeller aircraft only for company-internal purposes.
At the beginning of 1986 Wardair Canada received the route rights for national and international scheduled flights . On May 12, 1986, with the beginning of the summer flight schedule, a route network from Toronto to Calgary, Winnipeg, Montreal, Vancouver, Ottawa and Edmonton was set up, on which three leased Airbus A300s were initially used. In the same year international scheduled flights to London, Manchester, Birmingham , Leeds , Prestwick , Cardiff , Newcastle as well as to San Juan and Puerto Plata were offered. In January 1987 the company ordered 12 Airbus A310-300 aircraft , which were delivered from November 1987 and gradually replaced the A300 and DC-10. To further expand the national route network, orders were placed for 12 McDonnell Douglas MD-88s , 24 Fokker F-100s and two additional Airbus A310-300s in 1988. After it became known in January 1989 that Canadian Airlines International showed interest in a merger with Wardair , the delivery of the aircraft on order was initially delayed and finally canceled. On April 28, 1989, the Canadian Airlines holding company , PWA Corporation , took over Wardair Canada . After the takeover, the airline initially continued to fly under its previous brand name until it was fully integrated into Canadian Airlines International on January 15, 1990 .
fleet
- Airbus A300B4-203 (1986 to 1988)
- Airbus A310-304 (1987 to 1990)
- Boeing 707-320C (1968 to 1978)
- Boeing 727-100 (1966 to 1973)
- Boeing 747-100 and Boeing 747-200 (1973 to 1990)
- Bristol Type 170 (1958 to 1977)
- de Havilland Canada DHC-2 Beaver (1954 to 1968)
- de Havilland Canada DHC-3 Otter (1953 to 1971)
- de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter (1970 to 1979 and 1981 to 1988)
- de Havilland Canada DHC-7 (1978 to 1979)
- Douglas DC-6B (1962 to 1966)
- Grumman Gulfstream I (1979 to 1980)
- McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30 (1978 to 1988)
- Mitsubishi MU-2 (1975 to 1977)
Incidents
- On May 3, 1970, a Bristol 170 Mk.31M of Wardair ( aircraft registration CF-WAG ) broke through the ice of the actually frozen lake on Great Slave Lake , Canada and could no longer be recovered. People were not harmed.
See also
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Alberta's Aviation Heritage [1]
- ^ The Pocket Guide to Airline Markings, D. Donald, London 1985
- ↑ Flight International, December 12, 1974 [2]
- ↑ a b Flight International, March 26, 1988 [3]
- ↑ jp airline-fleets international Edition 79
- ↑ The New York Times, January 31, 1987 [4]
- ↑ The New York Times, January 21, 1989 [5]
- ↑ The New York Times, April 25, 1989 [6]
- ↑ jp airline-fleets Edition 90/91
- ↑ jp airline markings, jp airline fleets international
- ^ Accident report Bristol 170 CF-WAG , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on August 5, 2019.
