Wardair was hit hard but on June 30 the Canadian government
gave it the OK to resume flights.
In February 1980, the government announced significant
changes to the Canadian Transport Commission regulations to
expand the operating authority of charter airlines domestically
and internationally. By June, Wardair was operating a non-stop
weekly charter between Vancouver and Toronto; by December
it was four a week, with Edmonton and Calgary being added.
Money M atters
In March of 1981 Max placed an order for six A310s (and
options for six more) with deliveries to start late 1983. There
was a minimum outlay of $430 million which made Max
nervous, and to make matters worse, the recession had just
hit. The bank rate had just doubled when the first of the two
DC-10s (C-GFHX) arrived from Singapore in October
- The second, to be C-GFIB was cancelled when
Tom Spalding, Wardair’s executive vice-president
negotiated a let-out due to finances being short.
With no money, Max now had to make some very swift
business decisions. As he said in his biography, The Max Ward
Story, “We pitched into the domestic charter business just in
time to run head-on into the economic downturn. The sharp
rise in interest rates in 1980 and 1981 played havoc with our
financing, since we had a lot of loans out on floating rates, while
at the same time, potential customers were staying at home.”
Another visit to Airbus was required; this time to get out of
the deal for the A310s to gain back $16 million, less penalties.
Of Airbus, Max admitted: “I doubt if there is another aircraft
manufacturer in the world that would have treated us so well.”
1982 saw Wardair on the brink of disaster, which was hard
to understand when it was flying with a 94% load factor, with
services that linked all major Canadian cities. The economy
slowly began to recover in 1983 and the following two years
proved good for Wardair, which was even named the world’s top
charter airline by Which? Holiday Magazine and was awardedThe proposed f leet of
DC-10s was cut short
in the early 1980s
when the recession
hit and bank rates
doubled.Boeing 747 C-FDJC
was the f irst to join the
Wardair f leet and is
seen here at London,
Gatwick in May 1974.
It was named ‘Phil
Garrett’ after the boss
of DHC, who sold
Max Ward the f irst
aircraft in the f leet.
The aircraft remains
active with Saudia
and f lies as TF-ABO.12 AIRLINER Classics 2018
“I doubt if there is another
aircraft manufacturer in the
world that would have treated
us so well” Max Wa rd