The story
Founded by Billy Diamond in 1982, in Val-d'Or.1
The airline was established in June 1982 and started operations on 1 July 1982. Billy Diamond, first and former Grand Chief of the Grand Council of the Cree is credited with the founding of the airline.
At that time the Cree owned 51% of the company and Austin Airways owned the remaining 49%. In 1988 the Cree purchased all the airline assets in the largest commercial deal to that date performed by any Indigenous group in Canada, making Air Creebec owned entirely by the Cree.
According to Cree sources, during negotiations to launch the airline, Premier of Quebec René Lévesque muttered "Indians don't run airlines, Billy", to which founder Billy Diamond replied "Well, this Indian is going to."
On 23 March 2012, Air Creebec discontinued its service to La Grande Rivière Airport.
In 2023 the airline appointed its first female CEO Tanya Pash, succeeding outgoing CEO Matthew Happyjack. Prior to her appointment Pash was COO for 10 years.
From Wikipedia’s article on Air Creebec, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.5