Aviation Memorabilia Newsletter

Air Club International

The airline was established in 1993, headquartered at Mirabel International Airport (at the time, Montréal's main international airport) and managed by a group that included several former Nationair executives and presided by Claude Lévesque, to operate charter flights between Canada, Europe and the Caribbean.

The carrier's first airplane was an A310-300 acquired via Airbus Leasing and used for routes towards Europe, such as London. Later, the airline obtained additional A310 aircraft and, late in January 1995, began using a Boeing 747-200 leased from Japan Airlines from its Vancouver base.

As part of a contract with Air India, Air Club operated flights from India to several international destinations, starting in 1994. Between seasons, Air Club also operated different contractual flights for various organizations.

Air Club ceased operations in 1998 and returned the leased aircraft to the lessors.

On the left, we have a photo of the timetable issued 1995 from the collection of David Zekria.

Our photo below is of an Air Club International Boeing 747-200 at London Gatwick Airport. This aircraft was converted to Jumbohostel outside Stockholm Arlanda Airport in 2008.

(Refer to NetLetter #1391 for details of the restaurant.- eds)

(Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_Club_International)

From the Air Canada UK/EC Pionairs newsletter #308 - Nov/Dec 2018.

The nearest near-miss of a drone operating too close to a passenger aircraft has been recorded. The UK's Aviation Collision Police reported a drone came within 10 feet of a Virgin Atlantic aircraft preparing to land a Heathrow with 264 passengers on board. The aircraft was still at a height of around 3,200 feet, well above the legal flying limit for drones, where the near-miss occurred.

To date, the Police have not been able to identify the drone operator.

Air Inuit was established & started operations in November 1978 by the Makivik Corporation & operations started on June 30, 1978.

Montreal-based Chaperal Charters was acquired in 1984 and its fleet of 2 DHC-6s and 1 DC-3 were incorporated. In 1988, Johnny May’s Air Charters was purchased as a subsidiary company running single engine Otters and Beavers during the float season.

(Owned by the Inuit, the aboriginal people of Canada. Domestic scheduled charter passenger and cargo carrier within the province of Quebec)

(Source: airlinehistory.co.uk)

Today the fleet consists of B737-200, Twin Otter 300 series, Dash-8 300 series, Dash-8 cargo 300, King Air 350, King Air 100, Dash-8 100 combi.

Here we have the timetable issued June 6, 1993 from the collection of Bjorn Larsson.