Bearskin accepts a new challenge with acquisition of tour company.

When Harvey Friesen first took over Bearskin Airlines in the mid 1970s he piloted charters in one of the company's two float planes.

Today Friesen and his brother, Cliff, own an airline which has grown to employ 220 people. Bearskin has 30 aircraft and averages 80 departures per day.

Harvey Friesen is the company's president and he operates the Sioux Lookout head office. Cliff Friesen is executive vice-president and he runs the Thunder Bay office. Rick Baratta and Karl Friesen (not related) are minor shareholders in the company.

Bearskin's slogan 'Your Door to Ontario's North" is part of the reason why the airline is so successful. It services 27 communities in the area bordered by Winnipeg to the west, Minneapolis to the south, Manitouwadge to the east and Hudson Bay to the north.

When Harvey Friesen took over Bearskin he added the company's first scheduled flights from Sioux Lookout to Big Trout Lake. A permanent base was established in Sioux Lookout in 1978 when Cliff Friesen joined the firm.

"I'd always wanted to go into business, and the opportunity was there with Bearskin, which was in reasonably good shape and financially healthy," he recalls.

Even though many of the northern centres did not have an airport at the time, Bearskin was intent on providing charter services to the northern communities.

"There was a great need for people from Thunder Bay and southern Ontario to get up north, and it would take three days," recalls Cliff Friesen. "There weren't many tourists at the time, but medical professionals, government employees, contractors, Ontario Hydro workers, Bell workers and business people needed to service the north."

The first scheduled flights between Thunder Bay and Sioux Lookout in 1979 proved to be Bearskin's turning point.

"There was lots of opposition to the Sioux Lookout route. Nobody was doing it, the other carriers were objecting and everyone said we'd go broke," recalls Cliff Friesen.

Since then the service has grown from one to four flights per day, and Cliff Friesen says Bearskin has never lost money operating the route.

"It was one of our turning points," he says. "It gave us confidence in our ideas and led us to many other opportunities."

Bearskin has faced several challenges from competitors since 1976, but it has bought out some smaller carriers and managed to undercut the larger ones.

For example, Canadian Partner terminated many routes into Bearskin's area (it still services Dryden and Red lake), and NorOntair services Red Lake, Kenora, Fort Frances, Atikokan, Terrace Bay and Geraldton, but with Bearskin aircraft which Bearskin maintains and crews.

Cliff Friesen believes local management is one of the keys to the company's success.

"We're based in the north, we live here, and we know what the customer wants because we're close enough to hear what people are saying," he explains.

"You can have all the technology you want, but if you're not making the customer happy, you've lost it. The bigger carriers can't communicate (with customers) like us from Toronto, and maybe their planes are too large with too many seats to fill."

One of Bearskin's latest ventures involves its acquisition of Thunder Bay's Happy Time Tours.

Cliff Friesen explains that the company's former owner, Al Knutsen, called Bearskin to see if they would be interested in working together to revive the tour company.

"We saw the potential with the two companies having many similarities," he says. "And as two transportation companies, we will complement each other, and the end result will be quality-packaged products."

Knutsen is handling the marketing and sales at Happy Time Tours, while Bearskin conducts a market analysis to determine the company's future direction.