By NICK STEWART
With new aircraft, new out-of-province flights and a renewed focus on charters, NAC Air LP is pushing forward.
Since December 2006, the company has acquired five new Pilatus PC-12 planes, each with the capacity for nine passengers. This brought the fleet to 13 aircraft, including a mix of Pilatus and equal-capacity, executive-style King Air planes.
The new aircraft allow NAC Air to accommodate the 10 Manitoba destinations the company has added to its service list since November.
These include Winnipeg, Thompson, Tadoule Lake, Norway House, Brochet and Lac Brochet, as well as four others added in April, bringing the total communities it serves in Ontario and Manitoba to 27.
While many of these smaller Manitoba communities are already serviced by local Perimeter Airlines, a NAC Air spokesperson says the opportunity was ripe to offer them a greater degree of variety in their choice of flights.
The new planes have also propelled a growing demand for the company’s charter flights, which have increased by 100 per cent since adding the extra flight capacity.
“We’re going back to our roots a little bit, and we’re beginning to put a greater emphasis on charter sales because the market is definitely growing and opening up,” says spokesperson Mike Goheen.
With steady clients such as Murray Fraser Electric and Nishnawbe-Aski Police Services regularly chartering flights throughout the northwest, NAC Air charter officials are being kept on their toes, Goheen says.
Charter business has been so swift, in fact, company officials are looking at acquiring yet another aircraft in the coming fall.
While the exact type has yet to be determined, it is expected to be larger than the current fleet’s nine-seaters, possibly reaching as much as 19 seats. This will allow some seats to be removed to accommodate cargo if required.
Kicked off by Thunder Bay businessman Roland Frayne in 2000, the company began as North American Charters, with a single plane catering to northwestern communities. When the Eabametoong, Neskatanga and Webequie First Nations protested the long trips passengers would be forced to see on the so-called multiple-stop “milk runs,” the communities each offered to purchase a 20 per cent stake in the company that same year. Shifting to single-destination flights, the company engaged in much shorter runs and changed its name to North American Charters 2000.
By the following year, the Sachigo Lake First Nation also bought a 20 per cent stake in the company. Sandy Lake First Nation snapped up the final 20 per cent of the firm in 2005, making the company fully First-Nation owned.
Last year, the company officially changed its name once again, adopting “NAC Air” after the nickname regular clients had given it over the years. The newer, shorter name reflects the greater emphasis the company has placed on scheduled passenger flights since the company’s inception five years prior.
The grand opening of a $4 million three-storey hangar complex at the Thunder Bay airport last July further cemented NAC Air’s new identity, while also providing it with better sense of self, Goheen says.
“Everything is finally all under one roof, rather than having offices scattered all over the place. It just makes sense, and it’s benefited everybody, giving us the room we need to what we need to do much more easily and efficiently.”
With a staff of 150, 40 per cent of which are First Nations employees, the company has added 30 employees in the last year and hiring is continually underway.
These accomplishments have recently been recognized by the business communities of Thunder Bay and Sioux Lookout, where the local chambers of commerce both awarded NAC Air with their Business of the Year award.
“This kind of recognition is a definite slap on the back, and it’s a sign that even though we’re a smaller airline, we’re doing something right.”
