at
London International Airport,
Ontario, 1983
Great Lakes Airlines, the predecessor of Air Ontario, was formed in 1958 and based in Sarnia, becoming Air Ontario Ltd. in 1983 and Air Ontario Inc. in June 1987. Also in 1969, the airline began acquiring
Convair 440 piston powered airliners configured with 44 passenger seats in order to replace the DC-3 aircraft and also to expand scheduled passenger service to other destinations in Ontario province such as London, Ottawa, Kitchener and Peterborough. However, by 1975 Great Lakes was in financial trouble which resulted in the Sarnia - Toronto route being the only scheduled passenger service operated at this time and also led to the airline being purchased by a partnership consisting of a group of Toronto businessmen including James Plaxton, who brought in new capital from the
DeLuce family when he merged Great Lakes with their
Austin Airways operation. In 1977, the airline moved its headquarters from Sarnia to London, Ontario and also purchased Flightexec Ltd. which was based in London and operated executive charters with
Piper Aztec twin prop business aircraft with Great Lakes continuing to operate Flightexec as a separate air carrier. By early 1981, Great Lakes was still operating as an independent air carrier with service to four cities in Ontario province including Toronto, Ottawa, London and Sarnia with all flights being operated at this time with
Convair 580 turboprops configured with 55 passenger seats. By the fall of 1981, the airline had changed its name and was operating as
Air Ontario which in turn continued to serve Toronto, Ottawa, London, ON and Sarnia as an independent air carrier operating Convair 580 turboprops. Both Air Ontario and Austin Airways were operating
Air Canada Connector (now known as
Jazz Aviation) services on behalf of Air Canada in 1987 with Air Ontario flying Convair 580 and new Dash 8 turboprops at this time. By the late 1980s, Air Ontario was operating
Fokker F28 Fellowship jets as well as Dash 8 turboprops on Air Canada Connector services. According to the
Official Airline Guide (OAG), one of the first F28 jet routes operated by Air Ontario on behalf of Air Canada was nonstop service between Toronto and Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario with four roundtrip F28 flights being operated every weekday in December 1988. Also according to this same Dec. 1, 1988 OAG, these nonstop Air Ontario F28 flights between Toronto and Sault Ste. Marie had replaced Air Canada's mainline jet service on the route with Air Ontario competing at this time with
Canadian Airlines International mainline
Boeing 737-200 nonstop jet service between the two cities. By early 1989, the airline was also operating Air Canada Connector service with an F28 jet on a roundtrip routing of Thunder Bay - Dryden - Winnipeg with this flight being involved in fatal accident on take-off from Dryden in March of that year (see Accidents and incidents section below). in 1999 As a wholly owned subsidiary of
Air Canada, Air Ontario's operation as an
Air Canada Connector code sharing partner increased substantially in the intra-
Ontario marketplace following Air Canada's decision in February 1990, to discontinue mainline jet service to
North Bay,
Sudbury,
Timmins and
Windsor. Route expansion from
Toronto Island Airport (now known as
Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport) nonstop to both
Montreal and
Ottawa as well as nonstop to
Newark, NJ in the U.S. soon followed, along with the addition of other new routes into the
United States from
Toronto Pearson International Airport. In December 2000, Air Ontario was amalgamated into
Air Canada. In January 2001, a newly merged carrier called
Air Canada Regional Inc. was established. A wholly owned subsidiary of Air Canada, this company combined the individual strengths of four regional airlines—
Air BC,
Air Nova, Air Ontario, and
Canadian Regional Airlines. Consolidation of these four companies was completed in 2002 and was marked by the launch of a new name and brand—
Air Canada Jazz. ==Fleet==