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Big River Air buy-out

Derek Neary and David Ryan
Northern News Services

Fort Smith (Apr 10/06) - After 12 years of charter airline operations in Fort Smith, Big River Air is selling off its Northern assets.

Last week, Northwestern Air Lease, also based in Fort Smith, finalized the purchase of one plane, a Cessna 210 and will lease out three others from Big River's fleet - a Cessna 185, a Cessna Caravan and a DHC-2 Beaver.

"The transition has been quite smooth," said Gordon Bush, general manager with Northwestern.

All four aircraft are equipped with floats, which Bush said gives an added dimension to Northwestern Air Lease.

"During the summer, there is a lot of float plane activity," he said.

Having the planes available will allow the airline to be competitive with others in the exploration and tourist charter business, said Bush.

"There now is a bit more of a monopoly," he said.

Northwestern Air Lease will use four to five part-time pilots who previously flew for Big River Air.

Two full-time staffers will be moving over as well including chief pilot Trevor Weaver who will be operations manager for Northwestern Air Lease.

Dick Funk, one of the former co-owners of Big River Air, will remain in Fort Smith to look after aircraft maintenance for Northwestern Air Lease. Doug Williamson, the other co-owner of Big River Air, is planning to eventually head back to Red Deer, Alta.

After the deal Big River still has four planes in Smith, but doesn't expect that to continue much longer.

"We have two up for sale," Williamson said. "Two we haven't decided what to do but we expect we'll expand our fleet in Chibougamau, Que."

Northwestern employs 50-60 people depending on the season.