http://www.airlinerworld.com 27Further fleet growth is planned.
“We’re always in dialogue with Air
Canada and looking for opportunities
to do more. Already we have within our
capacity purchase agreement with the
Canadian flag carrier, a deal to bring
in five more Q400s in 2020, although
these haven’t been ordered yet.”
In its flying programme, Jazz is
probably the regional airline with the
largest area of coverage of any in the
world. From the east coast to west coast
of Canada, the company flies over six-
time zones, but that’s not all. “We go
to the far north to White Horse and
Yellowknife, and in our most recent
role, we have been doing a lot of fly-
ing into the US, even to the south where
we fly to Houston, Dallas, Phoenix, San
Diego and San Francisco.
“We operate some very long-haul
flights for the CRJ900s, for instance
from Chicago to Vancouver, and
Calgary to Houston. When you look at
the geography, we’re pretty much all
over North America,” Randell remarked.Crew Planning
On the topic of going south of the
border, pilot recruitment there remains
a huge problem. Since 2007, the
company has been operating the Jazz
Aviation Pathways Program (Jazz APP)
to ensure its supply. “I don’t think
Canada is experiencing the same level
of difficulty as the US with respect to
obtaining pilots. The revisions in the
US regulations [notably the 1,500-hour
rule] really created some huge barriers
for new pilots,” Randell noted. “In
Canada, we’ve had some changes with
respect to flight and duty time and so
on, but generally speaking, not to the
same extent.
“Since its inception, Jazz APP has
grown to include 13 educationalinstitutions and four industry organ-
isations. We’re focused on some of
these institutions and the quality of
the pilots they produce. We provide
our advice and extensive experience
in support of these institutions and
generally that’s used to improve their
training syllabus.
“At the same time, we really get
great exposure to the top students
and so they’re able to move over to
Jazz. Plus, if you want to fly with Air
Canada in the future, Jazz is your
greatest opportunity to do so. We’ve
had close to 500 pilots who have
moved into Air Canada in the past
couple of years from Jazz. The good
news is that has lowered our costs as
well, because a more experienced,
senior pilot tend to be costlier. All this
doesn’t mean that the market isn’t
tight. I think some other carriers are
probably feeling it more than we are,
but so far, so good,” he added.
Moreover, by being the leading
regional in Canada, pilot candidates
from coast to coast look at Jazz as
their first port-of-call to enter regional
aviation flying. “Nobody has our foot-
print either,” the CEO observed. “We
have crew bases in five different
cities across the country, so we’re able
to offer a variety of locations to staff.Chorus Aviation Capital’s
Fleet and Placements
Type No Lease d To
Bombardier CRJ1000 4 Air Nostrum
ATR 72-600 3 Flybe
ATR 72-600 3 Virgin Australia
Bombardier Q400 3 Falcon Aviation Services
Embraer 190 1 KLM Cityhopper
Embraer 190 3 Aeroméxico Connect
Embraer 195 2 Azul Linhas Aéreas Brasileiras
Bombardier Q400 2 Ethiopian AirlinesIn its flying programme,
Jazz is probably the
regional airline with the
largest area of coverage
of any in the world.Jazz has been the sole
operator of the CRJ705,
and all have now been
converted to full CRJ900
specification. CEO Joe
Randell explained this
revolved around some
paper changes and new
certification. AVIATION
IMAGE NETWORK/BAILEYOne of the first exam-
ples of the Air Canada
Express' CRJ fleet to
receive the flag carrier’s
revised livery.