Photo of Transwest Air COO Garrett Lawless. Photo courtesy transwestair.com.
The northern Saskatchewan aviation industry may experience a shake up if a proposed friendly takeover actually takes place.
A letter of Intent has been signed between West Wind Aviation and Transwest Air, which if agreed upon would see West Wind take an ownership position of Transwest.
Transwest COO Garrett Lawless says right now nothing is official.
“There is a letter of intent that has been signed, which approves West Wind Aviation and Transwest Air to cooperate in the sharing of information to see if an acquisition like this would be in both of our best interests,” says Lawless.
“This is still a letter of intent and not a for sure thing that is going to happen.”
Transwest Air plan on making their decision by June 30, but Lawless says there is still a lot of work to be done before a decision can be made.
The friendly takeover would see West Wind assume an ownership position of Transwest and takeover its assets.
Lawless says at this time it appears the takeover could be a positive one for Transwest.
“We wouldn’t be having this discussion if we didn’t think it would be positive for both West Wind and Transwest,” says the Transwest COO. “I think the most important to both companies is the value we can deliver to our customers and that will play a big role in helping us make this decision.”
According to Lawless both airlines would continue to operate independently of each other under the possible new ownership structure.
The Chief Operating Officer also doesn’t anticipate any “meaningful changes” to the airlines staff.
West Wind was founded in 1983 and is currently owned by Athabasca Basin Development and the Prince Albert Development Corporation.
Transwest Air was formed in 2000 when La Ronge Air merged with Athabasca Airways.