Summit Air eyeing new aircraft
Company says the freighter's sale will be no disruption to shipping services
James Goldie
Northern News Services
Monday, September 28, 2015
NORTHWEST TERRITORIES
Although one aviation giant will soon be leaving NWT skies for good, there's no cause for concern among companies who rely on this aircraft to service their critical shipping needs.
Summit Air will soon be replacing its DHC-5A Buffalo - a freighter aircraft capable of transporting cargo loads up to 8,200 kilograms - with a newer plane that can function as a dedicated freighter and can seat up to 68 passengers.
"We're just trying to keep our fleet as current and reliable as possible," said Kirsten Langan, a project manager at Summit Air's parent company Ledcor. "We're replacing it with ATRs which are more modern."
Earlier this year, Summit Air acquired a freshly painted ATR-72 with a refurbished interior.
"The ATRs are newer, they're cargo planes, they are basically the next generation of freight carriers," said Langan.
A second aircraft will enter service with the company later this year.
Summit Air is the only civilian company in North America still using Buffalo aircraft, which is one of the reasons the company made the decision to sell it.
"The Buffalos are very scarce. They're few and far between, and we find we have to take it out of service while waiting for parts or maintenance," said Langan.
Sometimes the wait for new parts can be long, a situation that the company would like to do away with.
For Canadian Zinc, the Buffalo has been an important part of its Prairie Creek Mine project in the south-east corner of the territory, near the Yukon border.
"It's always been efficient to have a larger aircraft for some of the larger equipment we may be interested in bringing in," said Steve Dawson, vice-president of corporate development at Canadian Zinc.
For now, his company has relied on the Buffalo for large shipments of fuel into the project site. He said once the mine begins development, large aircraft services similar to those provided by the Buffalo will be important to the project.
"There will be larger (mine) components that will need to be brought in and it provides opportunities for larger equipment to be built, rather than breaking them down and flying them in and having to construct them or reassemble them at site. So it's that sort of advantage I see the larger planes for," he said.
"Larger planes with larger capacities certainly provide advantages to numerous users, not just Canadian Zinc and not just the mining industry," he added. "But without that there it means we have to look at other alternatives and that takes time and money."
Dawson said his company had not been informed of the change, which did not surprise Langan at Ledcor.
"It's not going to be a change really to clients, it's just going to be a different machine carrying their cargo. It's not like there's anything they need to be concerned about," she said.
"There's going to be no service changes to our customers at all."
Langan said she expects use of the Buffalo will end in November or December of this year.
