The origins of this company date back to 1930 when pilots Richmond Mayson and Angus Campbell founded M&C Aviation in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. They later moved to Prince Albert. The company survived the Great Depression, and during World War II, its facilities served as a maintenance base for aircraft used by the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan.
In 1947, M&C Aviation was acquired by the government of Saskatchewan (Commonwealth Cooperative) and was renamed Saskatchewan Government Airways (SGA), serving the vast northern region of the province. In 1964, SGA was privatized and renamed Norcanair. Among the aircraft it operated were five Fairchild F-27s acquired from Hughes Airwest.
John B. "Jack" Lloyd, president of Norcanair, announced in 1981 the sale of the airline back to the provincial government. The purchase failed, and the company was sold to Saskatoon businessman Albert Ethier, who merged the airline with his own charter company, Hi-Line Airways.
On 23Dec1985, Norcanair added the Fokker F-28 C-GTEO (cn. 11991) to its fleet. On 02Feb1986, it announced the start of its jet services with three daily frequencies between Saskatoon and Regina, as well as a weekly flight to the United States, to Minneapolis–Saint Paul Airport. Another Fellowship joined the fleet on 03Oct1986 with the arrival of C-GTUU (cn.11006).
By 1987, Norcanair was operating as a feeder line for CP Air and was acquired by Time Air in March of that year.
C-GTEO was the only F-28 to wear Norcanair’s full livery, as the C-GTUU arrived directly in Canadian Pacific colors with “Norcanair” titles on the fuselage and “Canadian Pacific” on the nose.
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