The discount airline market is set to become even more crowded, as charter flight company Enerjet aims to relaunch itself as an ultra-low-cost carrier in 2019 after a decade of transporting oilsands workers and tour passengers.
An investment group headed by Tim Morgan says it plans to take off in a Canadian market that already includes WestJet Airlines Ltd.’s ultra-low-cost Swoop and Edmonton-based Flair Airlines. Canada Jetlines Ltd. is also set to launch next year.
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In an interview, Morgan declined to say which routes Enerjet plans to launch, when service will start or how many planes will be deployed.
Morgan’s consortium includes Claridge Inc. — a private investment firm chaired by Stephen Bronfman, a scion of one Canada’s wealthiest families — and Stephenson Management Inc., where Cirque du Soleil chairman Mitch Garber has been chairman since 2008.
Another investor is Indigo LLP, an Arizona-based private equity firm that specializes in budget carriers such as Singapore’s Tiger Airways and Florida’s Spirit Airlines.
Morgan, who co-founded WestJet, has been trying to take Enerjet into the budget carrier market for some time, but encountered hurdles after three former executives he’d tapped for that purpose sued Calgary-based Enerjet for breach of contract in 2015.
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