Originally Posted by
wjcandee
It's like the two Sonair 747s that Atlas flies. Sonair will occasionally give Atlas permission to use them on certain specific charters (think NFL). But at least when World had the contract, Sonair was super-extroardinarily-pain-in-the-tuckus persnickety about what groups would be allowed to charter their aircraft, and hyper-alert for any damage to the interior arising from such a group's use. I assume that they're pretty-much the same way with Atlas.
Your assumption is correct. Heck, it took two or three years of flying those aircraft before Atlas was able to talk Sonair into picking up ANY other contracts. Atlas said, "we have the industry contacts to get these aircraft flying, and hey look you have one spare sitting doing nothing." Sonair's answer: "That spare is a spare... we won't use it for anything other than that."
A couple of lucrative charter trips broke that ice. Now the relationship is a little more flexible when it comes to pursuing flying that will be mutually beneficial.