Discount airline king targets Canada with new no-frills carrier

Bill Franke, who helped pioneer bare-bones airlines in the US and around the world, is expanding into Canada. Franke’s Indigo Partners will join a Canadian investment group that intends to revamp charter airline Enerjet into a low-cost carrier in the mold of Spirit Airlines and Ryanair. The first flights are targeted for around September. The plan adds to a push by several carriers to bring to Canada a common global business model of cheap fares but abundant fees. The country’s market, dominated by Air Canada and WestJet, has been known for high airline operating costs due to airport and security fees. “We think this is very exciting for Canadians,” said Enerjet CE Tim Morgan, who will remain head of the revamped carrier. The Calgary-based airline will be renamed. The carrier’s fleet and route network are being determined, with both domestic and US destinations planned, he said. “We will look at all airports and where the demand and the passenger traffic takes us, that’s where we will go,” said Morgan, a WestJet co-founder who left that company more than a decade ago. More than 60% of Canada’s 37m people live within 100 miles of the US, and many of them drive across the border to fly. Cheaper flights in the US draw about five million Canadian passengers each year. Enerjet began flying in late 2008, focused on transporting oilfield workers to northern Alberta.<br/>