AIR BAFFIN, LTD.: Canada (1989-1996). Air Baffin is established by President Jeff Mahoney at Iqaluit, Northwest Territories, in 1989 to provide charter and bush flights. The only local carrier in the eastern Arctic, it is also the only to be entirely owned by the Inuit. Three years later, in May 1992, scheduled service is inaugurated linking the company’s base with Broughton Island, Cape Dorset, and Pangnirtung.
In 1993, Mahoney oversees a workforce of 14 and a fleet that includes 1 each Piper PA-31-310 Navajo, PA-31-350 Navajo Chieftain, Cessna 337 Skymaster, and Cessna 206 Stationair. A second Chieftain is acquired in 1994. Operations continue apace in 1995 and in late 1996 the carrier is renamed Air Nunavut, Ltd.
AIR BAHAMA, LTD.: Bahamas (1968-1982). English financier Norman Ricketts establishes Air Bahama (International), Ltd. at Nassau on July 22, 1968. Employing a leased Boeing 707, the company inaugurates discount transatlantic flights to Luxembourg. As the result of an October 1968 agreement with Hekla Holdings, Ltd., a subsidiary of Loftleidir, H. F./Icelandic Airlines, the company is taken over by the Icelandic airline in August 1969 and renamed International Air Bahama, Ltd.
Sigurdur Helgasson is named CEO and two Douglas DC-8-63s are painted in new livery and sent to Nassau. Services are now offered in conjunction with the new owner’s already well-known, low cost route from Luxembourg to New York via Iceland. Airline employment in 1976 is 67; during the year the name is changed to Air Bahama, Ltd. Flights cease in 1982.
World History
