Harmony Airways was an

airline An airline is a company that provides civil aviation, air transport services for traveling passengers and freight. Airlines use aircraft to supply these services and may form partnerships or Airline alliance, alliances with other airlines for ...

headquartered in

Richmond Richmond most often refers to: * Richmond, Virginia, the capital of Virginia, United States * Richmond, London, a part of London * Richmond, North Yorkshire, a town in England * Richmond, British Columbia, a city in Canada * Richmond, California, ...

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

, Canada, a suburb of

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

. It operated holiday flights from Canada to

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and

Las Vegas, Nevada Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas ...

. Its main base was

Vancouver International Airport Vancouver International Airport is an international airport located on Sea Island in Richmond, British Columbia, serving the city of Vancouver and the Lower Mainland region. It is located from Downtown Vancouver. It is the second busiest ...

Flight International ''Flight International'' is a monthly magazine focused on aerospace. Published in the United Kingdom and founded in 1909 as "A Journal devoted to the Interests, Practice, and Progress of Aerial Locomotion and Transport", it is the world's oldes ...

3 April 2007

History

The airline was officially announced as HMY Airways (an

abbreviation An abbreviation (from Latin ''brevis'', meaning ''short'') is a shortened form of a word or phrase, by any method. It may consist of a group of letters or words taken from the full version of the word or phrase; for example, the word ''abbrevia ...

for Harmony) by David Ting Kwok Ho in February 2002. After acquiring two

Boeing 757-200 The Boeing 757 is an American Narrow-body aircraft, narrow-body airliner designed and built by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. The then-named 7N7, a twinjet successor for the Boeing 727, 727 (a trijet), received its first orders in August 1978. ...

jetliners in September and November 2002, the airline's inaugural flight flew from

in November 2002. The airline was wholly owned by David Ting Kwok Ho. Throughout the mid 2000s, the airline steadily expanded, first within

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

, but it soon expanded to

and to many destinations in southern USA. Future plans included expanding into

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

, but those plans were never realized. The airline was renamed Harmony Airways in May 2004. Harmony's telephone reservations were contracted to a dedicated call centre team at Vantis Corporation in Calgary, Alberta (later briefly renamed Vantis-TravelCLICK before closing down Calgary operations in October 2006). Vantis (previously known as VIP) was a third-party call centre based in Calgary before being acquired by TravelCLICK in October 2005, then having operations moved to Jamaica in October 2006. Harmony's call centre contract with Vantis-TravelCLICK ended after Harmony ceased operations in 2007. From June 2006 to October 2006, Harmony Airways leased a

Bombardier CRJ-100 The Bombardier CRJ100 and CRJ200 (previously Canadair CRJ100 and CRJ200) is a regional jet designed and manufactured by Bombardier Aerospace between 1991 and 2006, the first of the Bombardier CRJ family. The ''Canadair Regional Jet'' (CRJ) pr ...

to operate on their

Calgary Calgary ( ) is the largest city in the western Canadian province of Alberta and the largest metro area of the three Prairie Provinces. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806, makin ...

route. The aircraft was configured in a single-class 50-seat configuration, and was painted in a hybrid,

United Express United Express is the brand name for the regional branch of United Airlines, under which six individually owned regional airlines operate short- and medium-haul feeder flights. On October 1, 2010, UAL Corporation and Continental Airlines merged t ...

- Harmony Airways livery. On March 27, 2007, Harmony Airways announced that it had issued layoff notices to all staff, and that it was ending scheduled flight service on April 9, 2007, due to increasing fuel costs and having a hard time attracting full-service passengers amid low-cost competition, such as

WestJet WestJet Airlines Ltd. is a Canadian airline headquartered in Calgary, Alberta, near Calgary International Airport. It is the second-largest Canadian airline, behind Air Canada, operating an average of 777 flights and carrying more than 66,130 ...

. Harmony also had a hard time attracting profitable business travelers, due to a lack of a frequent flier program and lacking services to popular business destinations.

Destinations

As of October 2006, Harmony Airways had services to the following destinations: *

Palm Springs, California Palm Springs (Cahuilla: ''Séc-he'') is a desert resort city in Riverside County, California, United States, within the Colorado Desert's Coachella Valley. The city covers approximately , making it the largest city in Riverside County by land a ...

Hilo, Hawaii Hilo () is a census-designated place (CDP) and the largest settlement in Hawaii County, Hawaii, United States, which encompasses the Island of Hawaii. The population was 44,186 according to the 2020 census. It is the fourth-largest settlement i ...

Honolulu, Hawaii Honolulu (; ) is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, which is in the Pacific Ocean. It is an unincorporated county seat of the consolidated City and County of Honolulu, situated along the southeast coast of the island o ...

Maui, Hawaii The island of Maui (; Hawaiian language, Hawaiian: ) is the second-largest of the islands of the state of Hawaii at 727.2 square miles (1,883 km2) and is the List of islands of the United States by area, 17th largest island in the United S ...

Toronto, Ontario Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

Calgary, Alberta Calgary ( ) is the largest city in the western provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Alberta and the largest metro area of the three Canadian Prairies, Prairie Provinces. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,30 ...

Oakland, California Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast of the United States, West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third ...

New York, New York New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Uni ...

Vancouver, British Columbia Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

Abbotsford, British Columbia Abbotsford is a city located in British Columbia, adjacent to the Canada–United States border, Greater Vancouver and the Fraser River. With an estimated population of 153,524 people it is the largest municipality in the province outside metrop ...

Victoria, British Columbia Victoria is the capital city of the Canadian province of British Columbia, on the southern tip of Vancouver Island off Canada's Pacific coast. The city has a population of 91,867, and the Greater Victoria area has a population of 397,237. Th ...

(Seasonal) *

Kelowna, British Columbia Kelowna ( ) is a city on Okanagan Lake in the Okanagan Valley in the southern interior of British Columbia, Canada. It serves as the head office of the Regional District of Central Okanagan. The name Kelowna derives from the Okanagan word ''ki� ...

(Seasonal) *

Edmonton, Alberta Edmonton ( ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Alberta. Edmonton is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Alberta's central region. The city anchor ...

(Seasonal)

Fleet

The Harmony Airways fleet consisted of

aircraft. For a short period of time in 2006, Harmony Airways operated a

aircraft on its

route. As of March 2007 the Harmony Airways fleet included four

aircraft. On March 22, 2007, the

National Post The ''National Post'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet newspaper available in several cities in central and western Canada. The paper is the flagship publication of Postmedia Network and is published Mondays through Saturdays, with ...

reported that Harmony Airways would reduce its fleet to three 757s. In the summer of 2007, British engine manufacturer Rolls-Royce purchased two of Harmony's 757s in order to harvest the plane's RB211-535 engines to support other customers' engine needs. Rolls-Royce then sold the remaining aircraft hulls to an American salvage company.

Services

Harmony Airways offered two classes of service on their

aircraft (the

was single-class):

Business Business is the practice of making one's living or making money by producing or Trade, buying and selling Product (business), products (such as goods and Service (economics), services). It is also "any activity or enterprise entered into for pr ...

and

Economy class Economy class, also called third class, coach class, steerage, or to distinguish it from the slightly more expensive premium economy class, standard economy class or budget economy class, is the lowest travel class of seating in air travel, rail ...

. Both classes were advertised as being full-service compared to

and other low-cost alternatives.

Business Class

Available on

aircraft,

Business Class Business class is a travel class available on many commercial airlines and rail lines, known by brand names which vary, by airline or rail company. In the airline industry, it was originally intended as an intermediate level of service between ...

was Harmony's flagship product. Business class was sometimes marketed as ''harmonyone''. Seats had a pitch of 52 inches, and a width of 22 inches. Passengers were given personal AVOD (Audio Video On Demand) systems to use during the flight. Amenity kits were also provided.

Economy Class

Harmony Airways promoted their economy class as higher quality than other airlines, stating "We really shouldn't even use the word economy". Seats had a pitch of 32 inches. Harmony gave out free headphones in Economy class that passengers could keep, to use with the

Inflight entertainment In-flight entertainment (IFE) refers to the entertainment available to aircraft passengers during a flight. In 1936, the airship '' Hindenburg'' offered passengers a piano, lounge, dining room, smoking room, and bar during the -day flight betwee ...

. Complimentary hot meals were served on longer routes.

References

External links

Harmony Airways
(Archive)
Harmony Vacations
(Archive) {{Defunct airlines of Canada Airlines established in 2002 Transport in Richmond, British Columbia Defunct airlines of Canada Airlines disestablished in 2007 2002 establishments in British Columbia 2007 disestablishments in British Columbia