The Winnipeg International Airport has become the busiest express cargo centre in the country with the announcement yesterday that Cargojet will use Winnipeg as the hub for its nine-plane Canadian cargo operation.

The Hamilton-based cargo airline that formed after the bankruptcy of Canada 3000 will fly six flights a night into Winnipeg and six flights out and mix and match its Canadian overnight cargo service here.

Cargojet's reconfigured route schedule was enough to attract the Canadian business of international courier giant, UPS. The new business, which will add about 20 per cent to Cargojet's total volume, made the redesign of its system possible.

"This new route configuration helped attract UPS," Cargojet president and founder Ajay Virmani said yesterday. "We are carrying for DHL, UPS and others who are competing against the likes of FedEx and Purolator and they believe in us."

Yesterday's announcement is the first manifestation of renewed interest in the cargo business from the Winnipeg Airports Authority. Cargojet will employ at least four people in Winnipeg and will probably be responsible for the employment of about 10 other people at contract firms that supply services like ground handling.

Barry Rempel, WAA CEO and the former vice-president in charge of cargo at Canadian Airlines, said tone of the things happening in the shakeup in the aviation industry is that airlines are flying smaller planes on routes which often means less room for cargo.

"There has been a shift in passenger service and if carriers are going in different directions then we have to find alternatives," Rempel said. He pointed out United and NorthWest Airlines are both using smaller regional jets on the Winnipeg to Chicago, Denver and Minneapolis flights.

He said the air cargo business has not seen the declines that passenger service has and that has created an opportunity for businesses like Cargojet.

Yesterday's announcement had an element of history to it. About a year ago Cargojet acquired Winnport Logistics, the would-be international air cargo operation that was going to turn Winnipeg into an international air cargo hub. Unfortunately that did not materialize and instead Winnport leased a 727 and made a deal to fly cargo for Royal Airlines until it was acquired by Cargojet.

Lynn Bishop, the former CEO of Winnport, has been working with Cargojet for the last year, commuting to Mississauga. Bishop will move back to Winnipeg to manage the operations here.

"I am glad to be back in Winnipeg," Bishop said. "With this move Cargojet is going to be able to offer a better level of service overall."

Virmani and his two partners are veterans in the air cargo business. In the late 1990s he owned Commercial Transport International (CTI) and Fastair Cargo Systems. His business group generated sales of more than $100 million and employed about 400 people worldwide. He sold his companies in 2000 and then started Cargojet in 2002.

Rempel said Virmani has a very good reputation in the industry.

"There are people who talk and there are those people who are known as doers," Rempel said. "Ajay is a doer."

Virmani said Cargojet chose Winnipeg from which to operate its hub for several reasons, among those was the friendly entreaties of the WAA staff.

"The Winnipeg airport people came out to our office twice," said Virmani. "It is the kind of reception you would expect from an airport."

As the primary owner of Winnport, Crocus Investment Fund rolled that stake into Cargojet and Crocus currently has a seat on the board of directors of Cargojet.

Cargojet now flies nine Boeing 727 cargo planes carrying about 400,000 pounds of cargo five nights a week servicing 12 major Canadian centres. It has about 300 employees in total.

Yesterday's announcement also included the addition of Swiss Air to the group of inter-line agreements Cargojet already has with Air France and British Airlines.

martin.cash@freepress.mb.ca