Wardair

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Wardair airplane at takeoff

Wardair Canada (IATA: WD, ICAO: WDA, and Callsign: Wardair) was one of Canada's few privately run pre-deregulation airlines, founded by Max Ward in 1953 under the name Wardair Ltd. The airline formally changed its name to "Wardair Canada" in 1976 after using the name informally since 1962.

1 History
2 Destinations
3 Historical Fleet
4 References

[edit] History

Wardair provided domestic service in Quebec, Manitoba, Ontario, British Columbia, and Alberta, as well as international service in Europe, the USA, and several Caribbean and South American countries. On March 31, 1989, the Canadian Transportation Agency approved the sale of Wardair to Canadian Airlines International.

Wardair had its roots in the air charter business in Yukon and the Northwest Territories. From a small start with small biplanes as passenger and cargo charter company, the airline expanded into the more populous regions of Canada and turned into a holiday charter airline, from 1962 onwards. Wardair was not a discount airline but an airline providing good service at lower-than-average prices. They were known for their high quality meals and friendly staff. "Steak & Champagne" flights was a popular advertising tag line in the 1980's, and won various awards from magazines for their service (Holiday Which? magazine charter airline of the year 1985, and scheduled carrier of the years 1986 and 1987).

The airline changed from charter to scheduled service in 1986. Rapid expansion, problems with their computer booking system, and failure to attract business customers, who had developed customer loyalty to frequent flier programmes on competing airlines, led the airline into financial difficulties, resulting in the sale to Canadian Airlines in 1989.