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Air Creebec - Mineral exploration fuels growth

By IAN ROSS Air Creebec has come a long way since their first twin-engine Otter used to land on remote airstrips with the aid of snowmobile lights and flare pots.

By IAN ROSS

Air Creebec has come a long way since their first twin-engine Otter used to land on remote airstrips with the aid of snowmobile lights and flare pots.

The passenger and cargo aircraft of the Val-d’Or-based regional carrier have been a familiar site on the gravel runways of the James Bay Coast for 25 years, serving the communities of the Grand Council of Crees.

First Nation-owned Air Creebec has been an economic and social lifeline for James Bay coastal communities. What began in 1982 with 14 employees, has grown to 262 employees - including Native pilots, mechanical crew and ticket agents - providing passenger and freight service in northeastern Ontario and northwestern Quebec, and flying as far as south as Montreal.

Their fleet of 16 aircraft today ranges from their smallest eight-passenger Beechcraft King Air 100s to 46-passenger Dash 8-300s.

“When you look at the communities we serve, there aren’t too many with Dash 8 service,” says Air Creebec President and CEO Albert Diamond.

Diamond is recognized as one of the leaders of the Cree business community. As one of the founders of the Quebec Grand Council of the Crees, Diamond was instrumental in negotiations for the historic 1975 James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement, a promised $225 million deal to the Crees and Inuit in return for allowing hydroelectric projects to be placed in sub-Arctic Quebec.

It led to the formation of Creeco, the Cree-owned holding company that operates Air Creebec.

Partnerships have proved invaluable for Air Creebec since its beginnings.

“We didn’t know anything about aviation and our leadership realized we've got to take time to learn,” says Diamond.
They approached Austin Airways as a 51/49 partner to serve the Cree communities and began a six-year partnership until Air Creebec gained the confidence to buy them out in 1988. At that time it was the largest transaction by an Aboriginal group in Canada, worth more than $20 million.

The northwestern Ontario operations were sold off and became Wasaya Airways.

Diamond says the first six years of the partnership went well. But when they took over entirely in 1988, the expansion was “too big, too much” at the same time the aviation industry took a five-year nosedive.

The company reorganized, changed aircraft and has been profitable for the last 12 years, especially the last five. In 2006, Air Creebec generated revenues of more than $60 million with a 10 per cent net profit.

“The biggest growth sector for us has been the mining industry, especially over the last four years,” says Diamond.
Some remote communities are increasingly being served by barge, permanent and winter roads, but the company still transports fresh food and provides critical medical evacuation.  

Charter contracts have helped the bottom line; flying miners, supplies and equipment for De Beers, Goldbrook Ventures and Goldcorp into mine and exploration properties as far north as Baffin Island.

Though passenger numbers always fluctuate, those contracts provide a steady revenue stream, says Diamond.

“We’ve offset passenger volume over the last ten years with a big increase in freight, charters and contract work.”

Their future developments include investigating a new route between Chibougamau to Val-d’Or and eventually expanding service to Gatineau-Ottawa connection.

As well First Nation groups in Manitoba and Labrador have approached them to joint venture using the same approach that launched Air Creebec with a proposed five-year agreement to learn the business with an eventual buy-out position.

www.aircreebec.ca