Industry sees opportunity in regional market.

The North American travel and airline industry may be in a state of disarray, but aviation-related businesses clustered around Thunder Bay International Airport are thriving with activity serving a unique regional market.

The airport's largest recent expansion was the opening of Confederation College's Aviation Centre of Excellence.

Ed Schmidtke, the airport's business development manager, expects the new $17-million campus to be the cornerstone for any future growth at the airport.

"We regularly target companies that are looking to expand to make sure they are fully aware of the main advantages of Thunder Bay with the steady stream of skilled graduates coming out of that school. It wouldn't be the first time where industry followed education."

"We also try to take a vested interest in understanding what our tenants are doing for a living by finding new ways of sending new business to them."

A few companies have seen significant expansion within the last year.

Last fall, helicopter company Wisk Air moved into a 10,000-square-foot hangar and a new helipad formerly occupied by Trans Canada Pipeline to position themselves for future growth. The company is considering purchasing a new 13-seat Bell 205 helicopter to their existing fleet of two Bell Long Rangers for help in their fire suppression work with the Ministry of Natural Resources.

"It's an excellent vehicle," says Wisk Air president Mark Wiskemann, who started Wisk Helicopter as a chopper leasing company in 1984 and also operates a Dryden base and a maintenance overhaul facility in Brandon, Manitoba. "It carries a lot of troops, materials, has a great water bucket capacity and the fire guys love it."

The eight-employee firm specializes in aerial photography and survey work for Weyerhaeuser, Abitibi-Consolidated, Bowater, Domtar and many small junior companies. The backbone of the company is its stereo photography

"That's probably the biggest and most interesting ticket item we have."

Another helicopter firm expects to open a sub-office in Thunder Bay next spring.

Zimmer Air Services, headquartered in Blenheim, Ont., will move into one of the old Confederation College flight school hangars. Owner Paul Zimmer says their new northern base allows them to take on more winter "off-season" work they previously turned away due to the long seven-hour flights from south-western Ontario to Thunder Bay.

Zimmer sees great potential for more business by locating in the North.

"One of the biggest problems is most helicopter companies live and die by fighting fires. The Ministry of Natural Resources hires the closest people to the fire and we don't often get calls to fight fires. When we do we're way down on the list because of our distance away from the North."

With about half their airborne pest control and vegetation management business located in north-western Ontario, Zimmer says it just made sense to be closer to their forestry-based clients such as Tembec and Bowater. The company is awaiting paperwork approval from Transport Canada before opening the base. Two helicopters, a Bell 206 Jet Ranger and an ASTAR, will be stationed in Thunder Bay.

Thunder Bay Aviation, an aircraft parts distributor, has grown into a manufacturer in the last five years, shipping product all over the world.

Launched in 1987 to service the Twin Otter market, the 12-employee firm has grown in the last two years. The company has added two more staff and shipping engine parts, nose gear, interior parts, even stretcher racks to a client market that is 30 per cent Canadian, 30 per cent American and 40 per cent overseas, including Australia and the Philippines.

"The industry today is quite hard and we've tried to expand into more marketable areas," says Richard Kukkee, projects and manufacturing manager for Thunder Bay Aviation.

The company is experimenting with the use of new material for brake linings for Twin Otters.

They hope to land a contract to build seats for an Ontario-based aircraft manufacturer, and are proceeding toward obtaining Transport Canada approval to become a Design Approval Organization (DAO) to speed up certification of the company's aircraft parts.

Niigaani Air (an Ojibway word for leading) is working to nail down a proposal to fly regular scheduled service into Manitouwadge, Wawa, Hornepayne and Chapleau, using Sudbury as a turn-around hub.

The three-year-old service began with a float plane doing tourism charters, and has added a nine-passenger Navajo Chieftain for--business and personal charters, health transportation and legal work. They expect to take possession of another Chieftain, the third plane in their fleet, by early 2004.

"It's pretty exciting for us to expand into the regular service," says company owner and pilot Arthur Esquega, who employs four people. "We're looking at putting in counter space at Thunder Bay Airport and looking at working something like that out of Sudbury as well."

The initial proposal calls for a three-day per-week service to the communities, but could be expanded to up to five weekly flights by making arrangements with Health Canada for regular medical flights for out-of-town patients and making connections with other airlines' schedules.

North American Charters 2000 has experienced steady growth over three years, starting out with 10 employees and growing to 50. With four aircraft, including three Pitalus PC-12s and a King Air 100, the 60-per-cent First Nations-owned carrier offers a mix of charter and scheduled service to nine remote Native communities in north western Ontario.

"We've quadrupled our business in three years so we're doing fairly well," says Tom Meilleur, the company's director of operations, "and we have future expansions in 2004 planned with additional aircraft and communities added to the system."

Government aeronautical fees remain ongoing cost factors, he says, but small carriers like his remain the vital link into northern communities usually inaccessible by road year-round.

"People still have to go out for doctor's appointments, and Thunder Bay is in good position with the hospital."

Confederation College has some vacant space from their old facilities that are currently up for sale. In support of the new Aviation Centre of Excellence, the airport built a new 50-acre green-field subdivision. The new campus is the anchor tenant of brand new "airpark," and airport officials are hoping to populate the subdivision with aviation companies working in collaboration with the college.

www.tbairport.on.ca/toc.htm

By IAN ROSS

Northern Ontario Business