Evasion Air spreads wings and takes flight to Bathurst
With its growing business taking flight, Evasion Air is spreading its wings and relocating from Charlo to the Bathurst Regional Airport.
Evasion Air was founded in nearby Charlo as a flight school in 2011.
It has since added a second flight school, is catering to tourists, offers a charter service and is looking at further expansion into Edmundston.
"We had some students who were really interested in flying and had some needs — Wabush, Labrador and other places, so we got together and got more airplanes and got more permits and now we're operating pretty much as full-service company," said Evasion Air president Clement Nadeau.
The company now has three planes of its own and has been shuttling workers to and from the mining community in Wabush for more than a year.
Because most of those workers are from Bathurst, Nadeau moved the air service from Charlo to Bathurst, a distance of about 80 kilometres on Route 11 along the Bay of Chaleur.
"We decided to move everything to one spot and serve better the region," said Nadeau.
Now Nadeau is pondering the idea of adding flight service from Edmundston as people there have been asking for flights.
The company is also in need of pilots and is now certified to train them at the new flight school in Bathurst.
Flight instructor Thierry Millère has relocated to Bathurst and is getting ready to teach the area's potential pilots.
"We see all kinds of people," he said. "Older people, younger people."
"We have kids — 18 years old, they want to have their commercial licence," said Millère. "And we have older people who want to, you know, do a private licence. They saved some money and they want to do a recreational licence."
Evasion is also marketing to tourists and offering them the opportunity to be a pilot for a day.
"You have 45 minutes on the ground then you have the chance to get in the air, fly the plane yourself," said Lucie Hachey, the company's development manager.
Tours are also offered for the less adventurous.
"It goes over the city so you can ask to see where you live, the places that you grew up," said Hachey.
Evasion Air currently has eight employees and expects to triple that number by the end of 2015.
