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An English couple among the first passengers on the inaugural 259-seat Air Transat Airbus A310 flight from Gatwick, England, to Fredericton wants to live in the capital city.

Robert and Catherine Charman of Windsor want to leave their home, family, friends and jobs to start anew in Fredericton.

Robert works for the British postal service and Catherine is an administration clerk in the health system.

They ruled out going to the United States, Australia, South Africa and New Zealand.

"Life at home is a rat race," Robert said. "We decided to move somewhere and we searched the Internet for options. We looked at Canada generally and then the opportunity came up to fly to New Brunswick.

"We read about the Maritimes and the quality of life appealed to us. That is the biggest attraction and the more we looked into it, the more we liked it."

The Charmans enjoyed the flight from England. They arrived May 6 and returned home May 13.

"There was good in-flight service and plenty of space," Robert said.

"We saw the New Brunswick tourist information counter at Gatwick before our flight. It was a good flight and we'd like to return in September."

There are weekly Air Transat flights until mid-October.

The week-long trip was as much a vacation for the couple as it was an exploration of new possibilities.

"We've studied the Maritimes and we have some affection for it," Catherine said. "It has a slower pace of life.

"The people are friendly and welcoming and Fredericton is only a few hours from London.''

She said the quality of life makes up for lower salaries.

"We've reached a stage in our lives where we have achieved a degree of success, but we want a better quality of life,'' she said.

"We want to live to work and not have to work to live. We are old enough to know what we want."

With the exploration part of the trip behind them, more work lies ahead before the couple can come to Fredericton.

Robert said he will apply under the Provincial Nominee Program because it's faster than the federal government's immigration channels.

According to the Population Growth Secretariat, New Brunswick has a Provincial Nominee Agreement with the federal government.

That agreement allows the province to play a more active role in immigration by selecting a number of immigrants to fulfil specific economic needs.

Those nominated by the province will see their immigration application processed expeditiously resulting in a shorter processing time for immigrant visas.

Final approval of an applicant based on the individual's health and security background check is still the responsibility of Citizenship and Immigration Canada.