This video was made possible by the Time Air Historical Society.
In the middle of the Canadian Prairies at Saskatoon John G. Diefenbaker Airport is a
surprising amount of history, in the form of a dozen or so Fokker F28s.
The Fokker F28 Fellowship is a 65-seat regional airliner developed by Dutch aircraft manufacturer
Fokker, and first flew in 1967.
Amidst the regular traffic of today’s WestJet and Air Canada, these Dutch-built regional
airliners have sat here in Saskatoon for almost 20 years, all of them still wearing “Canadian
Regional” titles.
For a bit of context, Canadian Regional Airlines was the regional subsidiary of Canadian Airlines
International, which was formerly the second-largest airline in the country.
Canadian Airlines was formed in 1987 as the result of the merger between Pacific Western
Airlines and Canadian Pacific Air Lines, the latter of which had recently acquired Eastern
Provincial Airways and Nordair.
Later on in 1989, Canadian grew once again with the acquisition of Wardair.
In light of the deregulation of the Canadian aviation industry and the subsequent privatization
of Air Canada, all of this consolidation left Canadian and Air Canada as the two major players.
As early as 1989 though, there were some questions about the long term financial viability of
both carriers, owing to an ongoing recession, potential overcapacity in the market, and
a difficult operating environment for airlines in general.
By the late 1990s, Canadian Airlines found itself running out of capital, and a lengthy
battle for control ensued between Air Canada and none other than Onex Corporation, which
is a… whole other topic for another time.
Long story short, Air Canada officially took control of Canadian Airlines International
on December 23, 1999, and the transition began, including repainting a number of aircraft
into this hybrid livery.
So, over two decades later, why are so many of these planes sitting here in Saskatchewan,
in the livery of an airline that sadly no longer exists?
Well, that story starts further back than you might think.
In 1966, Walter “Stubb” Ross, a businessman from Lethbridge, Alberta, formed an airline
known as Lethbridge Air Service.
Around the same time, Air Canada was transitioning into an all-jet fleet, and eventually stopped
flights into Lethbridge.
By that point in 1971, Lethbridge Air Service, which had changed its name to Time Airways
and later Time Air, stepped in to fill the void.
In the years that followed, they quickly expanded to become the largest regional airline in
Canada, flying a fairly diverse fleet ranging from the Short SD-330 to the Dash 7 and Dash
8-300.
In 1987, Time Air purchased another carrier, Saskatoon-based Norcanair, which had two F-28-1000s
in their fleet.
The type became Time Air’s first and only jet aircraft, and quickly caught on at the
carrier, which became the largest F28 operator in the country.
It was even the largest F28 operator in the entire world at one point, with 38 different
F28s registered to them over the years.
After deregulation, Canada’s major airlines quickly began acquiring stakes in regional
carriers, and Time Air was eventually purchased wholly by Canadian Airlines’ parent company
in the early 1990s.
Following that, Time Air was rebranded as Canadian Regional Airlines, and formed a strong
feeder network for Canadian, especially in Western Canada where Canadian had a more significant
presence.
Additional carriers like Ontario Express, Inter-Canadien, and Air Atlantic were eventually
merged into Canadian Regional as well, and the resulting airline kept Time Air’s air
operator certificate.
And so, when the Canadian and Air Canada merger took place, Canadian Regional Airlines was
integrated into Air Canada Regional in 2001, along with Air BC, Air Nova, and Air Ontario.
In 2002, Air Canada Regional became Air Canada Jazz, and the quite complex combined fleet
was steadily pared down.
The Canadian Regional Dash 8s, many of which started with Time Air, moved over to Jazz
and continued flying passengers up until January of this year, but the F28 fleet was not as
fortunate.
Now, reportedly, Air Canada originally wanted to keep the F28s flying until the 2010s since
they were relatively inexpensive to operate and had been paid for already.
However, a no doubt competitively-priced deal for some CRJs ended that plan.
That’s why some of these planes got the hybrid livery, despite only wearing it in
passenger service for maybe a year or two.
Many of these aircraft continued flying for Jazz up until the end of 2002 when the type
was officially retired.
Most of the F28s found their way back to Western Canada, and to Saskatoon, specifically, since
it was an F28 maintenance base from the days of Norcanair.
The original plan for the F28s following their retirement from Jazz was to refurbish the
planes and sell them second hand to smaller carriers around the world.
A few of these planes did continue to fly in the years that followed, with the likes
of Canadian North and Peruvian airline Aero Continente.
Over the years, several different companies tried to sell the remaining aircraft to new
owners, but to no avail.
With 241 F28s ever built, and it being a smaller and more niche aircraft type, the airframes
themselves were likely difficult to sell.
Naturally, though, some components did find new homes, namely the engines, since they’d
be of far more use elsewhere.
What ultimately killed the chances of these planes being sold to other airlines though,
were three things: There were Airworthiness Directives on the
wings, Rolls Royce had stopped supporting the Spey
engines which powered the F-28, And the fact that these planes were no longer
noise-compliant, with no hush kit option available.
Fast forward back to 2022, and the F28 fleet here in Saskatoon has shrunk bit by bit over
the years, with many of these planes under the perpetual threat of being scrapped.
One of these F28-1000s is C-FTAV or ‘TAV’, a plane with quite the history.
Originally built in 1976 for Garuda Indonesia, it was later acquired in 1985 by Piedmont
Airlines.
It moved north to Canada in 1991 as an addition to the Time Air fleet.
In honour of Time Air’s 25th anniversary, this plane was painted in a striking bare-metal
livery.
It was eventually repainted into standard Canadian Regional colours around 1993, and
was one of the planes to receive the merger livery nearly a decade later.
For the past few years, the Time Air Historical Society has been working tirelessly to preserve
this historic aircraft, with the hopes of bringing it to Lethbridge to create a museum
honouring Southern Alberta’s aviation history.
This would be the only preserved F28 in the entire world in a museum setting with full
visitor access, but of course, getting the plane there is one of many hurdles.
So if, like me, you want to chip in a bit to help preserve a piece of Dutch and Canadian
aviation history, do check out the link that’s on screen now, or in the description below.
And genuinely, looking around these planes is like being transported back to the 1990s,
with the interiors just frozen in time.
Nowhere else in Canada, that I know of, will you find such a large fleet of airliners that’s
been virtually untouched.
In the case of TAV, the horizontal stabilizer, the wing root fairings, and engine cowlings
have already been removed for its anticipated transport to Lethbridge.
Once there, it’ll be reassembled, restored to its former glory and continue the legacy
of Fokker, Time Air, and Canadian Regional Airlines.
This is a project I believe strongly in, so if you’re able to support them, fantastic,
but if not, please feel free to spread the word, and hopefully you learned something
about what may very well be the last painted Canadian Airlines planes in existence.
Thank you very much for watching, and I’ll see you in the next one!