From the Cockpit with Nolinor President Marco Prud’Homme

Quebec-based Nolinor Aviation plans to add multiple Natilus Kona regional freighters to its fleet of 737-200Fs as the combination carrier expands its lift capacity to support remote regions in northern Canada. Nolinor, which recently announced the deal with Natilus , is among a handful of Canadian carriers , including Air Inuit and Chrono Aviation, still operating 737-200s in cargo, Combi or Quick Change configurations. [caption id="attachment_57148947" align="aligncenter" width="707"] Marco Prud’homme, president of Nolinor Aviation. (Courtesy/Nolinor Aviation)[/caption] In addition to its fleet of 737-200Fs, Nolinor operates a passenger fleet of one 737-800, three 737-400s and one 737-300 Combi aircraft. Cargo Facts caught up with Marco Prud’Homme, president of Nolinor Aviation, to discuss how the carrier plans to use the Kona to expand regional freighter services and continue providing narrowbody freighter lift with the 737-200 for the foreseeable future. What follows is an edited version of the conversation. Cargo Facts : How did the deal with Natilus come to fruition, and how long has Nolinor considered ordering the Kona? Marco Prud’Homme: Over the last five years, we’ve been in the market trying to find new aircraft solutions because with the fleet that we have — although we still have many years to go with them — we need to start thinking about the next type of aircraft we can have. Although the 737-200 is a great aircraft, it’s an aircraft that has a lot of capacity, and for some of the smaller cargo flights, it’s not the best option because it will be quite expensive to bring cargo if the load is 50% of the aircraft’s capacity. We first visited the Natilus team in San Diego last fall and had a chance to talk with them, see their mock-up and all the different components that they are working on. After our visit, Natilus came to Montreal to visit our operation and get a better understanding of the challenges that we face on a day-to-day basis. It became clear that the Kona was actually a solution that could even create a new market for us. It will give us the chance to go to some destinations where the runways were a bit shorter and the volume was not as big as what we’re doing right now. The Kona is more of a new market in regard to what we will be able to do with this aircraft and eventually, if the [Natilus] Horizon does see the light of day in the coming years, then that will also be a solution that could be interesting for passenger flights. But for what we are looking for right now, we’re more into the mindset of learning to walk before we run. The Kona is a very interesting project and that's the background behind it. CF : When do you expect to receive the first Kona? MP: We have a schedule and Natilus is talking about around 2030. For us, even if it takes a year or two more because of certification delays or anything, it’s not a deal breaker because right now we still have at least twenty years to go with the 737-200s. So, even if it takes five or six years, for Nolinor it’s a long-term solution and project. We know that there will be changes and improvements over time, so every time we meet with the Natilus team, they have new features that they want to talk about, and I see it in a very positive way. To be frank, there are not a lot of manufacturers who are taking into account the market of unpaved and gravel runways. I think it’s a shame because we once saw a study that said that two-thirds of runways around the world are unpaved. CF : What markets would be good for the Kona? MP: Up north, it’s mainly the mining industry that we’re supplying, which is a key economic factor there. There is also a lot of infrastructure that needs to be improved over the next couple of years, so any last-minute cargo such as daily food or delivery of equipment. As an example, recently we received a call from a mining company up north that needed a water pump because they had a leak. It was a last-minute flight and they needed it right away. Obviously putting this kind of equipment inside a 737-200F would be overkill because we were going to use maybe 5% of the capacity of the aircraft, but the Kona — if we had it today — would be a great solution for this problem. [caption id="attachment_57148949" align="aligncenter" width="1198"] Nolinor intends to keep its 737-200s for another twenty years. (Courtesy/Nolinor Aviation)[/caption] CF : What are the challenges you see as you continue to operate the 737-200Fs? MP: The reality is our maintenance cost has been one of the most fixed expenses in our budget for the last seventeen years or so that we’ve operated those aircraft. I would say that the challenges we face are naturally related to supplies of parts, and so on. On the cost of training, we purchased our own simulator a couple of years ago from Pan Am so that’s fairly stable also. I think at one point in time we have to ask the question: If people keep changing aircraft every five years, what’s the cost on the environment of creating an aircraft ? It takes a lot of resources. What we found out over the years operating the Convair 550, for example, is that as long as you keep performing active maintenance on the aircraft, the design quality makes it possible to use over time and spread that creation cost over a long period. CF : Are there any other freighter types Nolinor is considering? MP: Not at this time. If there’s something that comes along the way, we will always be open to looking at the solution. We’re in the market to win. We’re not in the market to take risks for nothing. I would say there are different turboprop solutions, but if you come into a market and you’re trying to compete with people who already have the same type of aircraft that you have, what are you really bringing to the market? That’s an edge that we see also with the Kona; we want to make sure that we are among the first operators to have it in the market and see how it manages. Register now for Cargo Facts' essential regional events for industry stakeholders: Cargo Facts Asia 2025 on March 24-26 at the W Shanghai in China; and Cargo Facts EMEA 2025 on May 6-8 at the Shangri-La Bosphorus in Turkey.

From the Cockpit with Nolinor President Marco Prud’Homme

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