After years of research and preparation, John Godfrey is potentially a few months away from operating a community-owned air service in Northern Ontario.
Marathon, Manitouwadge and Wawa are currently the only three communities that have signed a letter of intent to let Godfrey and his newly established company, North Shore Aviation, fly residents across Northern Ontario.
Godfrey said this project was never intended for profit, but to provide the communities with better transportation options, something he hopes to be able to do by this summer.
This is an important development for these and other regional communities which, like Manitouwadge, have no public transportation systems.
“It’s very important for the communities in Northern Ontario that are isolated to have access to affordable and reliable transportation,” said Dave Raymond, director of economic development for the Township of Manitouwadge. “It’s very important to see this become a reality.”
Because it will be community-owned, the air service will only be made available to the population of the communities involved, and anyone wanting to do business with them or the township.
Godfrey has recently finished the final revisions of his business plan and the project’s contract, and has handed both to all three communities.
What’s left is for the communities to get together and vet these documents, and then meet with Godfrey to finalize the arrangement.“We’re still going through the business plan, just to make sure the communities realize this isn’t a done deal,” said Raymond.
“We do hope to have everything in place by the summer time, but I don’t want people to assume that they can go and book a flight.”
As it stands, all the communities involved will pay approximately $25,000 to North Shore Aviation.
Under this model, the townships are buying the service of a pilot and an airplane on a yearly basis. They’ll also be joint shareholders.
There have been several communities that have declined the offer, but Raymond said that once they see that the model is proven to be effective, he expects to be contacted.
“If this program is successful, you can’t afford not to,” he said.
The cost of the ticket will vary between flights and will not include the services of the pilot built into it.
The individual will pay for the gas of the aircraft and its ongoing operational maintenance cost.
A round-trip from Manitouwadge to Thunder Bay could potentially cost $400.
“Now, if you can sit five people in that plane, that brings the cost down to about $80 a person,” said Raymond. “The more people you put can put on the plane, the more you reduce the per-person cost of that flight.”
Godfrey has two fully functional aircrafts ready to go, and if need be, he will purchase a much larger third aircraft.
“But don’t buy the airplane and try to fill it up,” said Godfrey. “If the load is there, then get the airplane...Start up small and then go to the size you can sustain.”
If the contract is signed and the deal goes through, a website will be put in place to have individuals see when flights are scheduled to take off.
If there aren’t any flights scheduled at passengers’ preferred time, they can create their own.
The system will be prioritized with a red, yellow and green marker.
If somebody is scheduled to go to a medical appointment and cannot have the date changed, it will be flagged as red in the account.
“Other people that have a flexible schedule who are simply looking to do some shopping can see that and realize that the person cannot change their date,” said Godfrey. “They will be able to book to go on that flight and lower their cost.”
A professional pilot, Godfrey bought a summer house and moved to Manitouwadge in 2003.
“I’ve always believed the Northern part of Ontario is great and has cheap real estate,” he said, “but not a lot of people go there because some places are just really hard to get too.”
One of the first things he realized after he moved is that people wanted to come visit, but a 12-hour drive from Toronto would often scare them away.
“People couldn’t come up for the weekend,” he said. “So you really feel isolated from everyone.”
With the current structure, those living in Manitouwadge who are looking to fly to Toronto have to face a four-and-a-half-hour drive to Thunder Bay, the only nearby location with scheduled air service to the big city.
The cost, a round-trip is approximately $800, is also prohibitive.
