Great Lakes Airlines becomes Air Ontario
In NetLetter #1487, (June 10, 2022) I explored the history of Great Lakes Airlines and I thought it would be a good idea to continue the evolution of its history.
Originally founded in 1958 as a niche market regional airline, by 1975 Great Lakes Airlines was having financial issues and was purchased by a group of businessmen and merged with Austin Airways but continued to operate as an independent carrier. Its centre of operations was moved from Sarnia to London, Ontario in 1977.
In 1981 the name was changed to Air Ontario and the regional airline began to see some growth, still operating a fleet mainly of Convair 580 turboprops, it expanded to Ontario's neighbouring provinces and two U.S. destinations (Cleveland and Hartford).
I think it is quite an ironic piece of history that Air Canada and Pacific Western Airlines entered into a partnership equally splitting 49% of the Air Ontario shares in 1986; now also operating de Havilland Canada Dash 8's which could be used to operate flights from Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport (YTZ).
The first jets operated by Air Ontario were the Fokker F28 Fellowship as an Air Canada connector in the late 1980's when the airline became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Air Canada.
In January 2001 during the flurry of restructuring of the Canadian aviation industry, Air Ontario was absorbed, along with other regional airlines, into Air Canada Regional Inc. which would be branded as Air Canada Jazz.
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