The President and Chief Executive Officer of Chorus Aviation, Joseph Randell, says his firm is considering expanding its aircraft leasing business into other countries.
In an interview with AirFinance Journal, Randell said talks with prospective clients had already commenced though nothing concrete had yet been finalized.
Currently Jazz Air (QK, Halifax) operates its fleet of twenty CRJ200s, sixteen CRJ705s, thirty-four Dash 8-100s, twenty-eight Dash 8-300s, and twenty-one Dash 8-400s for Air Canada Express exclusively. The firm's other subsidiary, the recently acquired Voyageur Airways (VAL, North Bay), operates seven CRJ-200s, two Q100s, and three Q300s for the United Nations Humanitarian Air Service (UNO, Brindisi).
In line with its amended Capacity Purchase Agreement (CPA) signed with Air Canada earlier this year, Chorus Aviation will transition to a mixture of larger, newer aircraft comprising Q400s and CRJ-705s while at the same time establishing a second carrier to operate its fleet of Q100s and Q300s which will ultimately be phased out. It is believed Voyageur could be used to help find suitable lessees for these aircraft once they have been retired.
Chorus established Jazz Aviation Holdings Inc. to hold all of its business interests associated with the Air Canada CPA and includes Jazz Aviation LP (Jazz), Jazz Aircraft Financing Inc. (JAFI), and Jazz Leasing Inc. (JLI). JAFI and JLI's sole purpose is to acquire and finance Q400s and related equipment, and lease them to Jazz for use in the CPA.
According to Randell, Chorus Aviation is also considering diversifying away from its current all-Bombardier Aerospace (BBA, Montréal Trudeau) fleet to include Embraer (EMB, São José dos Campos Professor Urbano Ernesto Stumpf) and ATR - Avions de Transport Régional (EVX, Toulouse Blagnac) aircraft as well.
