Northern airlines call off merger
No explanation given for end of talks between Canadian North and First Air
Walter Strong
Northern News Services
Published Monday, October 27, 2014
NUNAVUT
The waiting is over when it comes to behind-the-scenes discussions over a proposed merger between Canadian North and First Air, as talks are off the table.
According to an Oct. 23 news release, First Air owner Makivik Corporation and Canadian North owner NorTerra Inc. have "terminated discussions aimed at merging their airline operations, and no such further discussions are envisaged." Both companies indicated in the news release that they would not be making any further comment on the matter.
The proposed merger was announced on April 11, although virtually no detail surfaced as to how a merger of the two airlines would affect their combined staff of about 1,500 people, or how it would affect service and prices throughout the North.
At the time, Peter McCart, Canadian North vice-president of sales and marketing, said the two companies could share synergies if they were merged into one Northern airline.
"Canadian North is very strong on the charter side, First Air has very strong operations on the passenger and cargo side, so there is a lot of complementarity between these two companies that make sense for a merger of equals to take place," McCart said at the time.
The merger would have automatically triggered a federal competition bureau review because of the value of the assets and revenues involved.
"Under the Competition Act, the Competition Bureau has a mandate to review mergers to determine whether they are likely to result in a substantial lessening or prevention of competition," said Melanie Beauchesne, the bureau's senior communication advisor, at the time.
