By NICK STEWART
In a fiercely competitive industry, brothers Harvey and Cliff Friesen have used their entrepreneurial gusto to keep their company, Bearskin Airlines, soaring for nearly 40 years.
The willingness to do whatever it takes to realize their dream has carried them from the company’s humble beginnings on a remote First Nations reserve in the northwest and into the skies across the North.
“I’ve always liked to eye opportunities to see the potential in things,” says Harvey the company's president.
Even in the early days, Harvey was so committed to becoming a commercial pilot that he drove a schoolbus through his highschool years to pay for a pilot’s license. Even after graduating, he worked at a gyprock factory in Saskatoon to build his flight hours, and then took a job working at a grocery store at Big Trout Lake, a distant First Nations reserve, just for the opportunity to fly for the owner.
For two years, Harvey hauled firewood and stocked shelves at the store, occasionally earning the chance to hit the skies for what was the original Bearskin Airlines.
In 1972, he got his chance to buy a 50 per cent interest in the company from the owner, and immediately saw the opportunity to expand both service areas and the fleet. Initially borrowing $10,000 from their father to help purchase a new plane, Harvey worked seven days a week, often up to 16 hours a day just to help add planes and routes.
Given the hardscrabble living on the reserve, even something basic as hiring was a major obstacle, as they only had access to radio telephones, and no vehicles.
Cliff, meanwhile, had spent several years working for a mining supply firm in Saskatoon, laying the foundation for his involvement in the company.
By 1978, Harvey had bought the entire airline and moved it towards scheduled charter and passenger services. He soon sold half the business to his brother Cliff, who now serves as the executive vice-president.
The two soon worked together to grow the company throughout the North, expanding bases and routes throughout.
Now, the company is a “small airline that can sometimes operate like a big airline,” Harvey says, complete with a state-of-the-art reservation system and a progressive training system for its employees.
Despite the heights reached by the company both literally and figuratively, Bearskin Airlines has hit more than its fair share of turbulence over the years.
The 9/11 tragedy had an impact throughout the entire airline industry, frightening people away from flight travel in droves, and Bearskin was certainly not immune from its strong economic impact. To make things worse, that fateful September day also marked the inaugural day for the company’s new service between Ottawa and the Buttonville Airport, near Toronto.
“That was a real jolt for us,” he says. “It hurt in a major way, particularly as it was followed by a recession, but we weathered it.”
In the ensuing years, the Friesen brothers have had to more carefully consider their markets, and took a much more focused look at state of the company and where it needed to go.
With that in mind, the company sold its routes and assets north of Red Lake and Sioux Lake to Wasaya Airways, bringing their workforce from 450 to 200. In time, various expansions and slow, steady growth have allowed them to bring staff totals to 250.
Currently, much attention is being paid to the recent addition of Kitchener and Waterloo routes through Ottawa.
Instead of reaching too far, too fast, effort is instead being spent on trying to grow those markets.
This more measured approach is now more characteristic of the company’s approach, says Harvey, who’s philosophical about the difficulties that have arisen in recent years. He even credits the company’s strong managers and staff with helping to keep the company fresh and innovative at a time where competition between airlines is reaching a fever pitch.
“There are always challenges, and slowdown in the economy affects us quickly, but we try to keep ourselves in the air,” Harvey says. “I think we’ve done a good job.”
