By NICK STEWART
Competition grows fierce for talented in the aviation industry as larger carriers snap up pilots and maintenance workers.
However, Bearskin Airlines has a plan to retain employees and grow their fleet.
With the recent addition of two Metro III and two Metro 23 aircraft, the Sioux Lookout-based business has increased its holdings to a total of 12 Metro and two Beech 99 planes.
As the big airlines continue to snap up pilots and maintenance workers at a growing rate, it forces smaller airlines to spend extensive amounts of time and money training new staff on a variety of planes, says Bearskin president Harvey Friesen. By making the move towards a single type of aircraft, training time and costs are reduced.
“It’s not a whole lot of money in terms of the difference it makes, but it adds up in the long run,” Friesen says.
“Every dime counts.”
In addition, the Metro aircraft not only allows for five more passengers than the 14-seat Beech 99s, but they can also travel 10,000 feet higher, reaching up to 25,000 feet where weather is less of a factor and the air thinner.
While being a smaller airline sometimes leaves it open to employee poaching from larger firms, its reduced size can offer certain advantages, Friesen says. For example, larger airlines are required to travel through major hubs such as Toronto before making the hop to smaller Northern communities. Smaller businesses such as Bearskin can fly direct point-to-point. Another advantage is the ability to respond quickly to market demands.
For instance, the company has added a new flight to its itinerary in the last year. Stretching from Thunder Bay to Sudbury and through to Ottawa, and back again if desired, the flight allows for single-day trips, which can be a time saver. In fact, flying directly between these points can cut travel times by as much as three-quarters, Friesen says.
This added route has also allowed the company to add 15 new jobs for a total of 175-member staff. The extra employees have helped Bearskin cope with the rising demand for charter flights, which have picked up “considerably” in the last year.
“It’s a reflection of the economy, I think,” Friesen says. “Although some parts of the North are certainly in the doldrums, others are doing extremely well, and that’s helping to drive charters quite strongly.”
Friesen first started as a pilot for the company, which was founded in 1963 at a remote community of Bearskin Lake First Nations, northeast of Sioux Lookout. He purchased half the company in 1972, and the remaining half in 1977.
The following year, his brother Cliff purchased an interest in Bearskin, and is the company’s current executive vice-president.
To streamline the company and allow many of the communities to better service their residents, Bearskin sold its passenger service of 21 First Nation communities north of Sioux Lookout to Wasaya Airways in 2003.
Throughout the years, the company has shifted from an exclusive focus on charters to its current focus on scheduled service, and it now services 15 communities throughout the North as well as a handful of Manitoba locations.
As a reflection of its new focus, Bearskin has recently made the first significant change to the livery, or paint scheme, of its planes for the first time since 1977.
The aircraft now feature a cleaner look, with the company’s signature bear paw marks imprinted up the tail end of the plane.
“It’s made to look as though the bear’s making tracks, which is exactly what we’re doing (as a company). It’s a very distinctive look, very representative of us.”
