Service and safety in the sky
By Anna Guy
Clients know exactly what to expect from Nolinor Aviation: impeccable service and safety standards. But for Nolinor Aviation, no two customers are alike, and that’s just the way they like it.
“Nolinor Aviation offers customized, tailored air transport solutions,” says Marco Prud’Homme
Vice President of Nolinor Aviation. “Passengers, cargo, a combination of both, hazardous materials, petroleum products, freight, you name it, we carry it, to anywhere in the world.”
This year, Nolinor Aviation celebrates 25 years of service and safety in aviation. Established in 1992, Nolinor Aviation has been under current management since 1999. “Our main goal when we purchased the company was to try to see how we could offer a service that nobody else could provide,” says Prud’Homme. “We saw that there was a need for very flexible aircraft that could land on a gravel runway and ice strips and short and narrow runways. The Boeing 737 200 came to us as the best solution to provide that. This aircraft offers the reliability, flexibility, payload, speed, comfort and range that each client can depend on for their specific charter requirements.”
Designing a schedule around the customer, as opposed to the customer working around the airline’s schedule, is at the heart of the difference between regular airlines and Nolinor Aviation. Clients can charter a plane at any time of the day or night and find the most efficient solution for every one of its clients’ trips. “We do it the other way around,” says Prud’Homme. “Businesses comes to us with a specific need and we find which aircraft and configuration will solve their needs. If it is a long-term contract then we can look at bringing in another type of aircraft into the fleet—that is the level of service that we bring.”
Nolinor Aviation has always anticipated its clients’ needs and aimed to have developed its fleet accordingly. While most of the other aviation companies in the same market were using turbo prop planes, Nolinor Aviation saw the many advantages of doing things differently. “If you are leaving from Montréal, all the way to a northern destination (which most of our mining clients are doing), a turbo prop plane will take a long time to get there because it will have to stop to refuel,” says Prud’Homme.
Nolinor Aviation clients enjoy quick flights, great payload and the flexibility to land on multiple surfaces—which is especially important to clients from the mining and forestry industries . “The Boeing 737 200 is more flexible aircraft for this type of operation,” says Prud’Homme, who also notes that any configuration within the plane can be achieved within hours. “So if you have a last minute requests for a flight that instead of 120 passengers it now 77 and cargo, the aircraft will still be ready.”
Nolinor Aviation has the biggest fleet of Boeing 737 200 gravel-approved aircraft in the world, in addition to the Convair 580, and a Learjet 31A, the fastest and most modern business jet in its class. “We are in good position to offer solutions to a wide range of clients. Over the years other carriers decided to do less and less charter and we kept adding more market share over the years. The solution is not to copy another carrier but try to come up with something that is fresh and new for a very specific niche.”
Safety
With every new safety standard that comes out, we invest more into the level of safety we provide. In fact, Nolinor Aviation was the first in Canada’s civil aviation history to receive its complete Safety Management Systems (SMS) approval. This system, which detects risks before they turn into serious problems, is now a Transport Canada regulatory requirement for all companies offering commercial flights.
With SkyTrac technology in the entire fleet, pilots can communicate and get weather conditions in real time. The air traffic controller is also aware of the aircraft’s, speed, altitude, and destination at all time. Recently, Nolinor Aviation added its BARS (Basic Aviation Risk Standard) certification at a client’s request, to name one of the many safety standards Nolinor Aviation meets and exceeds.
“When a customer comes to us with any request, our mindset is always to find a solution to provide that service, equipment, or criteria,” says Prud’Homme. When a sports team recently requested the 737 300 aircraft, but with a custom configuration, Nolinor Aviation applied for a new configuration approval will soon be the first Boeing 737 300 with a VIP section in the front rows.
Nolinor Aviation can also offer this plane to service other sports clubs, cultural groups like orchestras, convention guests and tourist groups, in addition to making it available to other carriers in need of a replacement aircraft. “It took a few months and that is a cost we will absorb, but that is the kind of challenge that we like to meet, and it gives us more tools to provide solutions for other customers.” With the Boing 737 300, Nolinor Aviation is investing into a new executive market, which will see the company flying into more southern regions.
“The challenge and the exciting part of our business is every contract is different,” says Prud’Homme, who cites the strength of the entire team as the key to Nolinor Aviation’s 25 years of service. With over 210 employees, “We have one of the best teams in aviation industry,” he says. “Our team is used to managing change because every time we have a new request, it’s a new challenge. We love to have new challenges, and you need specific employees to do that.”
Since each client is unique, Nolinor Aviation tailors each flight specific to the requirements of the client. That’s what has set Nolinor Aviation apart from the competitors for so many years.
For more information about Nolinor Aviation, please visit http://nolinor.com/en/
