Air Georgian and Regional 1 Airlines Sign MOU to Merg
12-Sep-2013 Air Georgian Limited (AGL), a leading Canadian charter provider and Capacity Purchase Agreement (CPA) airline, has signed a memorandum of understanding with Regional 1 Airlines (R1), a subsidiary of Avmax Group Inc., a fully integrated aviation company with operations in Canada the United States, Africa and Afghanistan. Regional 1 Airlines and Air Georgian Limited will merge operations under one management team through the creation of a parent holding company.
Air Georgian will continue to focus primarily on its CPA relationship with Air Canada. AGL currently operates B1900 aircraft under the brand name of Air Canada Express. R1 will focus on expanding its domestic presence, specializing in serving the natural resource sector. R1 will further expand upon its existing international operations, specializing in ACMI contracts in remote regions, as well as continuing to support the United Nations World Food Programme and other peacekeeping and humanitarian programs.
This strategic merger will allow the new combined entity to position itself as a unique, fully integrated airline leveraging the technical, geographical and asset strengths of Avmax and the professional management and strong operational background of Air Georgian. Air Georgian and Regional 1 Airlines will benefit from having access to the world's largest private fleet of Dash 8 and CRJ series aircraft, over $100 million in spare parts and domestic maintenance bases in Halifax, Montreal, Kingston, Toronto, Calgary and Vancouver. International operations will be supported through Avmax maintenance bases in Great Falls, Montana, Jacksonville, Florida, Nairobi, Kenya and N'djamena, Chad in Africa.
Eric Edmondson will assume the President and CEO role at the newly formed parent company, as well as the role of President at both Air Georgian and Regional 1 Airlines. Daniel Revell will continue to be the CEO of Air Georgian and John Binder will continue in his role as CEO of Regional 1 Airlines. Scott Monsen will become the CFO & VP Finance at the parent company and its subsidiaries. Daniel Bockner will be the VP, Flight Operations & Security, while Brad Warren will fill the role of VP, Maintenance & Technical. Rick Giacomuzzi will hold the position of VP, Finance at Regional 1 Airlines. This merger does not impact the current structure or operations of any other subsidiary within AvMax Group Inc.
"I look forward to the opportunities presented by this strategic merger of two industry leaders," said Edmondson. "We are excited about our continued support of and dedication to our main partner Air Canada under the brand name of Air Georgian with its own dedicated and professional management team focused solely on bringing value to our CPA relationship. Regional 1 Airlines gives us a platform to aggressively pursue both domestic and international charter opportunities with significant existing expertise in operating ACMI leases, overseas field operations and remote environment start-ups."
Upon closing, the combined operations will utilize Beechcraft 1900D, de Havilland DHC 8 100, DHC 8 300 and CRJ 100/200 aircraft types, with the ability to quickly add additional larger gauge aircraft types with the long term goal of positioning the brands as major players in the 18-76 seat turbo-prop and jet market. Air Georgian will continue to operate, maintain and support the corporate jet charter market in Toronto as well as offering third-party training to the airline and corporate aviation sectors.
"We look forward to capitalizing on the strengths of Air Georgian, Regional 1 Airlines and Avmax Group," said Avmax Group Inc. CEO John Binder. "Our goal will be to provide full services solutions to our customers."