Chrono’s twice a week flights are under contract with Baffinland Iron Mines, but new planes will open up more seats for sale to the public.
For Chrono Aviation’s owners, opening a new passenger route between Iqaluit and Montreal isn’t necessarily about selling the most tickets.
Chrono’s passenger service between Montreal and Iqaluit is set to take off Aug. 6, with planes making the round trip twice a week.
President Vincent Gagnon and vice-president Dany Gagnon — who are not related, but founded Chrono and also own and pilot jets for it — said the decision to open the passenger route came from an opportunity and as a necessity.
Chrono is adding a Boeing 737-800 Next Generation passenger jet to its fleet for this route that is larger and more fuel-efficient than its aging 737-200 jets.
The older passenger planes are becoming “not reliable” due to maintenance costs, Dany Gagnon said in an interview.
The airline is contracted by Baffinland Iron Mines Corp. to fly workers north from Montreal. Now that the airline will use the larger jet with a capacity for 187 passengers, compared to the old ones that can accommodate 120, there’s an opportunity to sell up to 80 more seats per flight.
“Instead of having empty seats, we were like, ‘Why don’t we just try to sell tickets and open a route from Montreal?’” Gagnon said.
This new arrangement means Baffinland is still contracting Chrono to fly its workers, but on those same flights Chrono can earn additional income by selling some tickets to the general public.
That makes the route’s sustainability less reliant on how many people decide to buy a ticket, he said.
“The mine is the client and we fly for them, so we decided to just open the seats, make it reasonable in terms of price, make it easy and simple for the passengers,” Gagnon said.
When Chrono announced the new flights, it promised a flat starting rate of $699 for a one-way trip, with no price surges.
By comparison, a Canadian North one-way flight from Iqaluit to the Montreal-Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport in August may cost between $899 and $1,994, with a stopover in Kuujjuaq, according to the company’s website.
Additionally, Chrono is promising a flat fee of $50 for a second checked bag, whereas Canadian North increased its extra bag price to $86.25 earlier this year.
Gagnon acknowledged sales so far have been “slow,” adding he’s heard potential customers say they are skeptical about another airline attempting to compete in the northern commercial airspace where others have failed.
Also, he said Chrono has not intensely marketed the service yet and it has had to build an online sales platform in just a few months.
However, he said, he’s confident the quality of the service, which he described as a “VIP experience,” will convince the public to buy in.
“If I have 10 (passengers) per flight, I’ll be very happy,” he said.
“Baffinland is paying the flight, so it’s sustainable without any seats sold on the aircraft.”
Chrono is still waiting to receive its new 737-800 so the first flights to Iqaluit will be on a jet rented from Sunwing.
The airline executives are hopeful about the future and for their operations at the St. Hubert airport, which is a 30-minute drive east of downtown Montreal.