Tim Morgan is a farm boy who became a fly boy.

And today, the president and CEO of Calgary-based startup Enerjet hopes his new chartered airline will take off, just like WestJet did in the 1990s.

Morgan and his management team helped launch WestJet, but they left after founder Clive Beddoe decided somebody else - ultimately Sean Durfy - would succeed him as president. Now, they are attempting to adapt WestJet's original no-frills approach to the energy and tourist markets.

For now, at least.

Larry MacDougal, Business Edge
Former WestJet executive Tim Morgan is revving up the jet engines once again as president and CEO of startup airline Enerjet.

"Our business plan is only a plan and plans are made to be changed," says Morgan, also a licensed pilot. "We will refocus our aircraft (service) into whatever sector works."

Enerjet, which has two planes, will fly Suncor and other oil and gas employees to and from the oilsands and other oilpatch outposts. It will also offer sun worshippers direct flights from smaller markets to popular U.S., Mexican and Caribbean destinations.

The company is backed by the Thomson family's private holding company and other reportedly wealthy unidentified investors, and aims to generate $40 million in revenue in its first year of operations.

Morgan will be at the controls on some of the flights.

Some people might wonder whether Captain Morgan was drinking too much rum when he decided to start up a new airline in a recession.

But he and his co-founders, he points out, "are not afraid to stand up and be counted."

Actually, his aviation dreams began when he was sitting - on a tractor - and looking up at the sky ...

1. What are your parents' backgrounds?

"My mother was from Jasper. She was actually born in Britain. She was a public health nurse and then married my father, who was born in Calgary and became a farmer east of Strathmore (a town east of Calgary). They lived there until my mother died. She was only about 45 when she died a number of years ago. My father retired from the farm, probably 10 years ago, and passed away about five years ago."

2. What was it like growing up on the farm?

Tim Morgan

"It was a great spot. I got to drive the tractor and the trucks and do all the things that farm kids do. I went to school in Strathmore. I rode the school bus every single day into town and back."

3. What lessons do you think you learned from the farm that you could apply today?

"Being an entrepreneur, you have to get things done yourself. It's a make-your-own-fun kind of thing. Don't be afraid to go out after it - because no one else is going to do it for you."

4. How did your interest in flying develop?

"Flying has always held a fascination for me. I think my dad took flying lessons once. But our neighbours had the odd airplane here and there and, being on a farm, it's kind of nice to be looking up in the sky and seeing airplanes disappearing over horizons. When you're sitting in a big open field in a tractor and going around in circles, you've got lots of time to think of other places and other things. Being a farm kid, you learn how to fix cars and things like that, and work on things, and airplanes are mechanical. It's been quite natural for me."

5. What specifically did you study in the aviation program at Mount Royal College?

"Specifically, being a pilot - flying and all of the things around it ... Not so much (aviation company) management as aviation law, regulations - all of the things that go around flying an airplane. Actually, I learned management from my own company. It was a school-of-hard-knocks kind of thing."

6. How did you land your first job as a pilot?

"I made it myself. I couldn't find a job, so I went to somebody. I said, 'What if I get my instructor rating? Will you let me instruct on your airplane? So I got my instructor rating, found the students, took both of them to the fellow that had an airplane, and started flying. That was my entrepreneurial start."

7. How did you go from there to being a bush pilot?

"You get to meet people. I met somebody that had an airplane that needed to be flown up north. I went up north and flew it. That leads from one thing to another to another. Once you start meeting people, you start having opportunities that present themselves - and that's exactly what happened."

8. How did you end up joining Time Air?

"I was a corporate pilot in Calgary, just about the time the (National Energy Program) came around. Things slowed right down. I had just been laid off as a corporate pilot at the end of 1977. Darn it if I didn't get a call out of the blue from a recruiter at Time Air asking me if I'd like to go on a course for a Fokker F-28. They were the first jets that (Time Air) had. I'd flown a lot of high-performance airplanes, so I said, 'sure.' The next thing I know, I'm on my way down to South Carolina to Piedmont Airlines (now U.S. Airways) to learn how to fly an F-28. Being an entrepreneur and having my own business, I could actually get away to do it, because I had somebody helping me run my business. So I could just pack my bags and go - and I did. I actually ended up based in Saskatoon flying F-28 for Time Air. They'd just taken over Norcan Air at that time in Saskatoon, so I ended up flying out of there for two years and commuting back to Calgary."

9. Where did you go from there?

"I moved back to Calgary and started flying a De Haviland (now) a Bombardier Dash-8.

"In the fall of 1995, I finished flying for Time Air/Canadian Regional. That's when we started WestJet."

10. What gave you the idea for WestJet?

"Actually, I was sitting in the flying school one day in my operation at Morgan Air Services and (WestJet co-founder) Mark Hill came in, along with (WestJet founder and chairman) Clive Beddoe. Clive was actually renting one of my airplanes at one time. Mark actually brought the idea up. He said, 'Hey, what do you think about this Southwest Airlines? They're flying in the U.S. and doing this and this and this.' So we started looking at it, just kicking tires on the blackboard and writing up business plans. Originally, the business plan was called ABC Airlines."

11. In your view, what enabled WestJet to succeed?

"They made up a great business plan. They had a great bunch of people working for them and the foundations were tremendous. They created that culture and made it what it is, and that put them on the road to success. We created that low-cost structure in Canada. We were very focused and we brought the right people together at the right time. It worked. I mean, the business plan we had was pretty far-fetched, but the airline business really needed some help back then - because it was really screwed up. Air Canada was as bad as it is today and Canadian Airlines was just about bankrupt and people were looking for a change. The whole Costco, Wal-Mart concept was just new. In other words, spend a dollar and get a dollar's worth. Not spend a dollar and get 50 cents worth.

WestJet was (the airline industry's version of) the big-box store. The industry was ripe for somebody having a crack at it in Canada. The airline business was one of those businesses that everybody was so scared to death of that they wouldn't touch. It was too hard to break into. But with the deregulation (of ownership) and all of the other things that had happened, you could actually get in there and make a difference - and we did."

12. Why did you leave WestJet?

"It was going one direction. I was going another. Everybody's got to be on the same page, and maybe I wasn't on the same page anymore. So it was better for me to go away. At least, that was somebody's (i.e., Beddoe's) opinion anyway. I was vice-president, remember - not president. You can add that up."

13. When you say you were going one way and WestJet was going another way, how would you describe those paths?

"My philosophy and direction was divergent from what, maybe, (Beddoe's) was - and what maybe his vision of the airline was to be. I don't think I ever envisioned it being the be-all, end-all for everybody. I thought that we had a focused product and a focused goal. Suddenly, that goal became different. It became wanting to be the national carrier and international carrier, and all of these other things. What we wanted to avoid was becoming another airline statistic. My personal opinion is, the cards are still out on that. The pricing has changed, the product has changed and the budgeting has changed from where WestJet started. Maybe the chickens will come home to roost at some point."

14. How do you propose that Enerjet will be different from WestJet?

"First off, I would never want to recreate WestJet. We couldn't do it even if we wanted. We've got to be different. We are going to look at these niche markets. Right now, we are focused on the energy industry. We're going to go into Fort McMurray and Eastern Canada - and maybe some of that business is falling off the table at the moment. We have to look at other markets. We don't want to stand on the highway with WestJet or Air Canada and get run over - because they are way bigger than we are. They have way more capital and expenses, so we have to go where they're not. We'll go into places where either (flights) are very infrequent or (the markets) are difficult to get to. You make two or three stops. We'll take that (market) and make it into a one-stop operation. We'll also take our airplanes and take them wherever they'll generate revenue. We're not flying airplanes just for the sake of flying them. We'll do it to become a successful business. To do that, you have to generate revenue. So it doesn't matter what our airplanes do, as long as they're doing it and making revenue. We are very nimble. In fact, we've coined a term called 'nimbility.' "That's kind of one of WestJet's mottos, in that we will change and we will modify our plans to suit the markets. That's exactly what we've done - and we will do it again, I'm sure."

15. What is your strategy now?

"Our focus right now is the energy industry, but I suspect that will shift to the travel-and-tour business, or we'll contract our airplanes to the travel-and-tour industry. Certainly, that business is still very busy. Lots of flying is occurring. Mexico is busy.

Las Vegas is still busy. We plan to take advantage of that (situation) and either contract our airplanes to somebody that does the selling of the seats, or do it ourselves. That (strategy) will evolve over the next year or two years. In the meantime, we will fly into the energy industry and charter our aircraft accordingly. But I suspect that (market) will actually be slowing down, maybe for the next year or year and a half, and the tour business will actually be increasing. As this economic turmoil settles down, (business) may shift the other way (to the energy industry) again."

16. Why on earth would you try to start up during a recession?

"I can't think of a better time, to tell you the truth. It puts us in a position where our aircraft are less expensive. It makes us look at costs very hard. It makes us very effective. I use the term 'cost-effective' airline - not low-cost, because I don't think that's a true term. There's very little that's at low cost in the airline business. Everything is expensive. I would hate to be starting a business at the top and working my way down. I'm at the bottom - and I've got nothing but up."

17. What are your plans for the growth of your fleet?

"We will build it one airplane at a time. If that means we can only be successful with two airplanes, we'll be successful with two airplanes. If that means we need three, we'll get three. If it's four, it's four. We'll grow it as the need requires. We're not going to force the growth; the growth is going to be natural."

18. The U.S. market is in the tank these days. How will you try to balance your in-Canada efforts with your U.S. activity?

"Basically, we have very little U.S. activity. We may be flying Canadian citizens into the States. We won't be flying U.S. citizens around ... We're going to fly into Mexico, the Caribbean and places like that. People are still taking holidays. Whereas somebody might spend $5,000 on a holiday (in the past), maybe they're going to spend $3,500 (now). They're still spending. It's a matter of how much they're spending. That's will drive our numbers. I don't expect to make the same numbers that we'd have made two years ago. But I expect to be profitable at it."

19. What do you say to people who think you're crazy, given the nature of the airline industry and the economic times?

"Who knows? Maybe they're right. If everybody was that way, then we wouldn't get up in the morning.

Businesses wouldn't start. There are a lot of armchair experts out there. Maybe there's a better time, maybe there's a worse time. I don't know, but the opportunity presented itself to us and we thought it was viable. It's as simple as that. Be as skeptical as you like. The last time we started an airline - WestJet Airlines - everybody thought that was really stupid, too. Look at that today. I would never even use (WestJet) as a benchmark. The fact that we're still flying today means that we're a success. If we fly next week and the week after, we're a success."

20. What would you be doing if you weren't running Enerjet or flying planes anymore?

"I'd be bored to death! ... I'd be looking for something else to do."

Enerjet
* Brass: Tim Morgan, president and CEO; Alan Mann, chief financial officer; Bill Lamberton, vice-president of marketing; Gareth Davies, vice-president of aircraft technical operations; Darcy Morgan (Tim's brother), vice-president of business process and integration.

* Profile: Enerjet is a startup chartered airline that plans to serve the energy and tour markets in Canada, the U.S., Mexico and the Caribbean. The management team (excluding Darcy) helped launch WestJet in the mid-1990s and plans to offer a similar no-frills approach that the award-winning carrier did initially. Enerjet launched in November after securing a multi-year contract to fly Suncor Energy employees to and from the oilsands. It has obtained regulatory approvals from Transport Canada and the Canadian Transportation Agency and was seeking similar U.S. approvals at press time.

* Stats: Enerjet has two Boeing 737-700 airplanes and hopes to generate revenues of $40 million this year.

* Corporate Structure: Enerjet is a private company backed by the Thomson family and other investors that Morgan declines to disclose.

* Website: www.enerjet.ca * HQ: 119-1440 Aviation Park N.E. Calgary, T2E 7E2 * Phone: 403-648-2800

Tim Morgan
* Title: President and CEO, Enerjet.

* Born/raised/age:Calgary/Strathmore/ 53.

* Education: Aviation diploma from Mount Royal College. Pilot's licence.

* Career: After graduating from Mount Royal in the early 1970s, Morgan became a self-employed flying instructor. While operating Morgan Air Services, he went on to serve as a bush pilot, charter pilot and commercial pilot. After serving with Time Air/Canadian Regional Airlines, he helped launch WestJet in the mid-1990s. He left his post as a WestJet vice-president in 2005. He continues to operate Morgan Air while piloting Enerjet.He is also chairman, president and CEO of Calgary-based Air Partners, a subsidiary of Morgan Air that offers charter airline services, hotel bookings, aircraft maintenance and fractional ownership of planes.

* Moonlighting: Morgan serves on the boards of Business for Calgary Kids, which he founded, the Mount Royal College Foundation and Black Dawn Resources, in which he is a principal investor.

* Awards: In 2000, Morgan and his fellow WestJet founders received the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year awards for Western Canada, all of Canada and the world. Morgan also helped WestJet garner numerous employer and corporate-culture awards.

* Passions: Flying, skiing and fishing.