West Wind Aviation and Transwest Air have consolidated under one air operating certificate and will now be known as Rise Air.
When COVID-19 broke out last spring, the two carriers that service northern Saskatchewan were majorly impacted.
“We’re down about 50 per cent compared to what we were doing pre-COVID,” Stephen Smith, Transwest Air CEO, told Global News Friday.
Merging the two airlines together was a necessary move to offset the repercussions of COVID-19, according to Smith.
“That’s the only way we’d survive,” he said.
However, the CEO is optimistic. He’s grateful operations have continued, even if it’s slower.
“In terms of the scheduled or the charters that we do, we do an awful lot of charters for the mining sector and so on. They are down, but not down that much as they continue to work,” Smith said.
The rebrand won’t change things for patrons, and the merge will mostly impact behind the scenes operations.
The new Rise Air logo was designed by an employee. The bird represents connecting with land, northern Saskatchewan and people the company serves, according to a press release.
Smith hopes operations will pick up by September 2021 as more people become vaccinated.