By IAN ROSS
If you have ever sustained a serious injury at a remote work site or needed emergency surgery and had to be air-lifted to a medical centre in Toronto or London, chances are it was aboard a Thunder Airlines aircraft.
Thunder Airlines Ltd. has been a familiar sight in the skies over Northern Ontario since 1994 when Ken Bittle and a group of partners purchased the assets of a floundering Thunder Bay air charter and air ambulance business, Awood Air.
“It’s never been smooth sailing,” says Bittle jokingly, the company’s president who has spent 30 years in the aviation industry as an aircraft maintenance engineer and pilot. “Every day is a challenge. It’s never boring.”
Thunder Airlines employs about 80 people, including 30 paramedics, and operates a fleet of nine aircraft out of their head office and flight co-ordination centre in Thunder Bay and from bases in Dryden, Timmins and Sudbury.
They haul a variety of cargoes such as food and dry goods, transport equipment for tradespeople, and are licensed to haul bulk fuel into remote northern communities not accessible by road.
They operate five Mitsubishi MU2s, three Beechcraft King Airs and one Cessna Grand Caravan, each valued at about $1 million. Major clients include the Ministry of Health, Ontario Hydro, Bell Canada, Canadian National Railways and various provincial ministries and companies needing to fly three to five people into remote areas or mid-sized cities in southern Ontario.
The company expanded in November 1999 by acquiring its chief Sudbury competitor Airmed Canada.
Though the company fulfills a vital function for the North, financing such a capital intensive business, with over a million dollars invested in medical equipment alone, poses a major challenge, says Bittle.
“Especially in this day and age if you’re an airline you’re lumped in with the majors, which are having difficult times. The banks will assume you’re having the same problems whether you do or don’t.
They assume an airline is a risk, which makes financing difficult.”
Attracting and retaining skilled personnel such as paramedics and flight aircraft engineers has been
difficult, “but unfortunately because the industry’s going through some tough times there is a better supply of people available.”
But tops on their list is maintaining a safe environment and guarding against complacency.
“We operate in a hostile environment” with unpredictable weather hazards and northern airstrips which are equipped with the very minimum in navigational aids, says Bittle.
“That’s a constant day-to-day challenge and we tackle that with good training and re-testing to keep people sharp.”
Thunder Air also faces increased competition in its own backyard. Recently another air ambulance service based out of Toronto started up in Thunder Bay.
“Our employees are nervous because the air ambulance business is very competitive. It’s a huge investment in dollars and training and there’s no guarantee how much work you’re going to get. We only get paid when we fly.”
