Cargojet hires lobbyist, seeks federal cash for new Ontario aircraft facility [Video]

Cargojet Inc, the Canadian cargo airline whose shares trade on the TSX, is seeking federal money to develop a new Ontario aircraft maintenance, repair and overhaul facility, Global News has learned.

The Mississauga-based company has hired a lobbyist to press Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED) for “grants, loans or other financial benefits” as it develops the new facility, according to a federal lobbying registration filing.

Cargojet says its plan would see the company build a maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) facility for its own fleet of 41 Boeing 757 and 767 freighter airplanes.

The facility would also perform work for other companies and their airplanes, the filing adds.

No cost estimate for the Cargojet project was included in the filing, but such facilities typically cost tens of millions of dollars and create hundreds of aviation sector jobs.

In the aviation world, such installations have typically migrated to low cost, low wage paying …