AIR TORONTO TIMETABLE DATED APRIL 1, 1990
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| Beautiful airline issued postcard of a BAe Jetstream 31 of Air Toronto sporting Air Canada connector livery |
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| AIR TORONTO timetable dates 01/03/1980 from the Arthur Na collection |
THE HISTORY OF AIR TORONTO
YEAR 1973
OSAS or Owen Sound Air Services was founded as a flying school and charter flight company , the company diversified into cargo operations with contract flights with Purolator, Emery Air Freight and Airborne Express.
YEAR 1984
SOUNDAIR CORPORATION acquires both OSAS and Aero Trades Western,
a passenger airline company operating scheduled flights from Winnipeg to Prince Albert, Calgary, Pickle Lake, Sandy Lake ,Pikangikum , Big Trout, Deer Lake and Jenpeg. The company started operations with a mixed fleet of DC4 and DC4 that were replaced by Fokker F 27 and Convair 580. Soundair drops its passengers operations and concentrates on its cargo operations.
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| Undated ATW TIMETBALE from www.timetableimages.com .David Zekria Collection |
a passenger airline company operating scheduled flights from Winnipeg to Prince Albert, Calgary, Pickle Lake, Sandy Lake ,Pikangikum , Big Trout, Deer Lake and Jenpeg. The company started operations with a mixed fleet of DC4 and DC4 that were replaced by Fokker F 27 and Convair 580. Soundair drops its passengers operations and concentrates on its cargo operations.
YEAR 1986
Soundair diversifies its operations into charter leisure flights with Odyssey International, commuter passenger flights with Commuter Express with flights to Toledo, Dayton, Columbus and Akron all served from Toronto with a fleet of Fairchild Metro
Commuter Express was a niche airline operator that developed direct air services between Toronto and 2 tier and 3 tier cities in the North Eastern states of the USA. The operations proved to be profitable and attracted the attention of Air Canada which saw in these lines a feeder to their services as these routes were an alternative to Chicago or Detroit .
Soundair diversifies its operations into charter leisure flights with Odyssey International, commuter passenger flights with Commuter Express with flights to Toledo, Dayton, Columbus and Akron all served from Toronto with a fleet of Fairchild Metro
Commuter Express was a niche airline operator that developed direct air services between Toronto and 2 tier and 3 tier cities in the North Eastern states of the USA. The operations proved to be profitable and attracted the attention of Air Canada which saw in these lines a feeder to their services as these routes were an alternative to Chicago or Detroit .
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| COMMUTER EXPRESS TIMETBALE (28/4/1986) from www.timetableimages.com .David Zekria Collection |
YEAR 1987
Commuter Express joins the Air Canada connector scheme
YEAR 1988
Commuter Express re-brands itself as AIR TORONTO, as the company operations grew, the Metros were not fitted to accompany this growth , the company orders the BAe Jetsteam 31.The metros were relegated to cargo operations with Soundair's cargo division.
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| AIR TORONTO JETSTREAM 31 , COPYRIGHT Caz Caswell with kind permission (www.airpixbycaz.co.uk) |
YEAR 1990
Soundair ceases all operations following the economic crisis that impacted negatively its charter and regular flight operations as well as the loss of freight contracts.
YEAR 1991
Air Toronto restructures itself while in takeover discussions with Sir Canada. The 1st Gulf war will not help the operations of the company which sees a dramatic drop in activity. The take over with Air Canada is not materialized and it is Ontario Express a fully owned subsidiary of Canadian International that steps in as the knight in the shining armour. While the take over discussions began in May 1991, the situation was already too precarious for Air Toronto which ceases operations in July 1991.
YEAR 1992
Routes and planes were finally absorbed into Ontario Express in 1992 after a major deal was struck in September 1991.
The timetable published 25 years ago reveals a total network length of 4527 km. and 9 destinations served by a fleet of Jetsreams 31.
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| AIR TORONTO NETWORK MAP APRIL 1970 |
SPECIAL THANKS to :
Caz Caswell
Bjorn Larsson
Arthur Na
David Zekria
Sources
Wikipedia
Rzjets.net
Caz Caswell: www.airpixbycaz.co.uk
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