bstratt
Cleared for Takeoff
B.C. aviation firms face skills shortage
PETER KENNEDY
Globe and Mail Update
VANCOUVER — A Victoria company that wants to restart production of the Twin Otter, an icon among Canadian-built aircraft, is facing a familiar problem afflicting British Columbia's booming aerospace sector: a skills shortage.
Viking Air Ltd. bought intellectual property rights to the bush plane — which has been used since 1965 to transport geologists and tourists into remote areas of the globe — in February from Bombardier Inc. for an undisclosed price, betting there is a ready market for a 19-seat aircraft that can function in temperatures as low as -70 degrees, and has been widely used for polar expeditions and Antarctic rescue missions.
Finding skilled workers to implement its plan, however, is the key challenge that Viking shares with other B.C. aerospace companies, which are expanding to take advantage of strong demand for components and services.
“The industry as a whole recognizes that the skill shortage is going to be a real challenge to its growth over the next few years,” said Andrew Huige, executive director of the Aerospace Industry Association of British Columbia.
The expanding companies include Avcorp Industries Inc., Asco Aerospace Canada Ltd., Kelowna Flightcraft Ltd. and CHC Helicopter Corp., leaders in a B.C. industry that employs 8,000 skilled workers and generated near record sales of $1.25-billion last year.
In Viking's case, the company says it will need aeronautical engineers to support plans to build roughly 200 Twin Otters over the next 10 years at facilities in Victoria and Calgary and sell them to governments and commercial airline companies.
Kelowna Flightcraft, the lead member of a consortium that was last year awarded a $1.77-billion contract to train Canadian Forces pilots, is building a maintenance facility in Kelowna to enable it to service Boeing 757 aircraft.
“Business is good right now,” Kelowna Flightcraft general counsel Bob Monaghan said.
After striking a tentative deal with British-based BAE Systems PLC to supply wing components for the F-35 Lightning 11 jet fighter, Avcorp Industries doesn't expect to begin making the parts for at least another two years.
But already the company is looking ahead to beefing up its staff of about 600 employees and a possible future expansion of its 300,000-square-foot manufacturing plant in Delta, B.C., a suburb of Vancouver.
Avcorp president Paul Kalil said the company is meeting its staffing needs by hiring in Eastern Canada and setting up an aircraft structure technician program at the British Columbia Institute of Technology and other postsecondary institutions in B.C.
Already involved in repairing and manufacturing parts for a series of bush planes, Viking recently added 60,000 square feet of space to its plant in Victoria. A unit of Toronto-based Westerkirk Capital Inc., Viking has doubled its work force to 160 staff in the past 12 months.
But thinking it may need to hire another 150 workers, Viking is planning to work with the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology to develop a customized training program to produce trainees with the skill sets needed for Twin Otter manufacturing.
The company is also planning to set up its own “in-house university” to carry on training its aerospace workers after they graduate.
In a bid to fund the training process, the company is in talks with the federal government, hoping it will agree to provide about $3-million in repayable loans through Technology Partnerships Canada.
Further in the future, Viking will have the option of moving into other former de Havilland Canada aircraft, including the Beaver and the Caribou. Since February, it has had rights to the DHC-1 Chipmunk, the DHC-2 Beaver, the DHC-2T Turbo Beaver, the DHC-3 Otter, the DHC-4 Caribou, DHC-5 Buffalo, DHC-6 Twin Otter and DHC-7 Dash 7.
PETER KENNEDY
Globe and Mail Update
VANCOUVER — A Victoria company that wants to restart production of the Twin Otter, an icon among Canadian-built aircraft, is facing a familiar problem afflicting British Columbia's booming aerospace sector: a skills shortage.
Viking Air Ltd. bought intellectual property rights to the bush plane — which has been used since 1965 to transport geologists and tourists into remote areas of the globe — in February from Bombardier Inc. for an undisclosed price, betting there is a ready market for a 19-seat aircraft that can function in temperatures as low as -70 degrees, and has been widely used for polar expeditions and Antarctic rescue missions.
Finding skilled workers to implement its plan, however, is the key challenge that Viking shares with other B.C. aerospace companies, which are expanding to take advantage of strong demand for components and services.
“The industry as a whole recognizes that the skill shortage is going to be a real challenge to its growth over the next few years,” said Andrew Huige, executive director of the Aerospace Industry Association of British Columbia.
The expanding companies include Avcorp Industries Inc., Asco Aerospace Canada Ltd., Kelowna Flightcraft Ltd. and CHC Helicopter Corp., leaders in a B.C. industry that employs 8,000 skilled workers and generated near record sales of $1.25-billion last year.
In Viking's case, the company says it will need aeronautical engineers to support plans to build roughly 200 Twin Otters over the next 10 years at facilities in Victoria and Calgary and sell them to governments and commercial airline companies.
Kelowna Flightcraft, the lead member of a consortium that was last year awarded a $1.77-billion contract to train Canadian Forces pilots, is building a maintenance facility in Kelowna to enable it to service Boeing 757 aircraft.
“Business is good right now,” Kelowna Flightcraft general counsel Bob Monaghan said.
After striking a tentative deal with British-based BAE Systems PLC to supply wing components for the F-35 Lightning 11 jet fighter, Avcorp Industries doesn't expect to begin making the parts for at least another two years.
But already the company is looking ahead to beefing up its staff of about 600 employees and a possible future expansion of its 300,000-square-foot manufacturing plant in Delta, B.C., a suburb of Vancouver.
Avcorp president Paul Kalil said the company is meeting its staffing needs by hiring in Eastern Canada and setting up an aircraft structure technician program at the British Columbia Institute of Technology and other postsecondary institutions in B.C.
Already involved in repairing and manufacturing parts for a series of bush planes, Viking recently added 60,000 square feet of space to its plant in Victoria. A unit of Toronto-based Westerkirk Capital Inc., Viking has doubled its work force to 160 staff in the past 12 months.
But thinking it may need to hire another 150 workers, Viking is planning to work with the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology to develop a customized training program to produce trainees with the skill sets needed for Twin Otter manufacturing.
The company is also planning to set up its own “in-house university” to carry on training its aerospace workers after they graduate.
In a bid to fund the training process, the company is in talks with the federal government, hoping it will agree to provide about $3-million in repayable loans through Technology Partnerships Canada.
Further in the future, Viking will have the option of moving into other former de Havilland Canada aircraft, including the Beaver and the Caribou. Since February, it has had rights to the DHC-1 Chipmunk, the DHC-2 Beaver, the DHC-2T Turbo Beaver, the DHC-3 Otter, the DHC-4 Caribou, DHC-5 Buffalo, DHC-6 Twin Otter and DHC-7 Dash 7.