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Deborah Stokes
Weekend Post


Saturday, June 18, 2005
Colin Hunter is the first to admit that history is repeating itself with the launch of his new Canadian leisure airline, Sunwing Airline.

As one of the founders of Canada 3000, which flamed out in November, 2001, Hunter is also part of a small circle of travel-industry players referred to in some quarters as serial entrepreneurs. One of them, Michael Leblanc, is freshest in people's memories, having started --and finished -- Jetsgo, as well as Inter-Air in the late '80s, and Royal Aviation, which was sold to Canada 3000 in 2001.

"We should have got it going last winter but there were more regulatory hurdles than we anticipated," says Hunter, following this week's announcement of the new airline. His Sunwing Travel Group also owns Sunwing Vacations, a package holiday company (headed up by his son, Stephen Hunter), and Red Seal Tours. He has named Mark Williams, the former Skyservice president, as head of the airline.

Hunter's newest venture is a charter airline that will carry the company's 155,000 yearly package holiday travellers to such sunny destinations as Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Mexico and Costa Rica. "We found we couldn't rely on third parties for flying our passengers," Hunter says. Sunwing will take off in November. Currently, the company's package holidays are operated on other charter airlines, such as Skyservice or Air Transat.

A lack of seating capacity for customers with these other airlines was the big factor in launching the new airline, he says. The three-year-old package holiday company has been on Profit's list of the 100 fastest-growing companies two years in a row. But he also says the company "often found it difficult to control the service standards received by our customers."

The new airline will offer such services as a welcoming glass of Champagne, complimentary hot in-flight meals with wine, free snacks and leather seating. The airline will operate new generation Boeing 737-800 aircraft.

Being at the mercy of other airlines has bedevilled Hunter in the past. In the late '80s and early '90s, his Adventure Tours was in the same predicament. Business was good, and for several reasons (airline shakeups being a big one) seats for his passengers were getting scarce.

"So we ended up starting Air 2000," he says. It later became Canada 3000.

This winter, unable to negotiate additional seats on the charter carriers, Sunwing was forced to contract seats on the now defunct Jetsgo. "Now, once again, we were left without capacity, so the only thing to do was to go the same way as we did before. It really is a case of history repeating itself," says Hunter.

But he insists things will be different this time around. "We plan on staying in the leisure business and not straying into scheduled service," he says. That's what ultimately killed Canada 3000, among others in Canadian airline history, such as Wardair. He says Canada 3000's decision to become a scheduled airline was the reason he parted company with it.

That said, Hunter hints at future expansion for Sunwing. "Ontario is our main market -- at the moment," he says.

Eerily, Sunwing's home base, at 27 Fasken Drive, near Pearson airport, is the former headquarters of deceased Canada 3000. Hunter owns the building. "But I don't believe in ghosts," he says.

Or, it would seem, being haunted by the past.

dstokesnationalpost.com; Deborah Stokes is the National Post travel editor.

© National Post 2005
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