So, who is Pascan Aviation? A closer look at the Maritimes' newest airline

Smaller planes coming to Sydney-Halifax flights Pascan Aviation will apply its model of smaller planes, smaller flights to Halifax-Sydney route.

Pascan Aviation might be a name many Cape Bretoners hadn't heard before Thursday’s announcement that it will soon be servicing the Sydney-to-Halifax air travel route that had been gone for two years.

However, it turns out the McCurdy Sydney Airport's newest carrier didn't arrive out of the clear blue sky.

"We'd been looking at Sydney for many, many years but we've always been hesitant,” said Julian Roberts, Pascan Aviation’s president & CEO.

“We're a really small company. Air Canada was there servicing Halifax, WestJet was there servicing Halifax."

With those larger carriers having abandoned the Sydney-to-Halifax route, Roberts said they saw an opportunity.

He added that on Sept. 8 the airline is scheduled to start flying out of two other Maritime airports.

"We're launching Bathurst, New Brunswick and Saint John, New Brunswick in September - to Halifax, as well,” Roberts said.

“And when we start Sydney, we'll be able to connect into that network via Halifax as well."

With headquarters just outside of Montreal, Pascan and its 30-seat planes that will service Sydney are familiar to McGill University aviation expert John Gradek.

"They've been there for years. They're solid financially,” Gradek said."Some things that the jets can't handle, these guys can handle so their operational reliability and integrity is much better as far as I'm concerned. From a safety record, they're great."

After getting by on just two flights in and out per day, the Sydney Airport will soon double that number, and they would like to add more new flights.

"Based on the conversations we've had, there's going to be a tremendous support (for the Halifax flights),” said Myles Tuttle, Sydney Airport Authority CEO.

"Every day we come to work, we're having discussions with other airlines about other routes. We want to ultimately serve our community with a number of direct flights to a number of destinations."

Roberts added that ideally, Pascan would like to add more flights between the two Nova Scotia cities.

"We currently have two flights a day scheduled. We'd like to see that upped to maybe three, and potentially four,” Roberts said.

Roberts said a Sydney-to-Halifax round trip will cost just over $500, and about half that price for one way.

The first Pascan flights between Sydney and Halifax are set to take off on Oct. 7.