Hercules' last flight
First Air signs agreement with American-based company Lynden Air Cargo to ensure continued service for Northern companies after selling its last C-130 plane to it
Karen K. Ho
Northern News Services
Friday, April 24, 2015
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Three dozen people stood a few hundred feet away on the asphalt on a cloudless day as they waited for First Air's "white bird" to take off from Yellowknife to Ottawa.
A photo of First Air's C130 Hercules cargo plane. On April 21, the last Hercules flight operated by First Air flew to Ottawa before the final sale of the plane to Lynden Air Cargo. The two companies recently signed a new strategic agreement for Hercules services. - photo courtesy First Air
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The onlookers comprised a smattering of government officials, executives from Lynden Air Cargo and First Air, as well as a few civilians - some of which had worked on the planes for decades, back when the airport hosted as many as eight Hercules airplanes at once.
"It's the end of an era," one of them said simply after it took off.
The last of First Air's Hercules C-130 cargo planes left Yellowknife as part of the company's fleet for the last time on April 21. The plane is being sold to Lynden Air Cargo, based in Anchorage, Alaska.
First Air's vice-president of commercial operations, Bert van der Stege, told News/North there simply wasn't enough demand to justify having the aircraft available at the airport 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
"It just no longer works for us," said. "The last really good year we had was in 2008, since then the business went really downhill."
The First Air four-engine turboprop military transport planes were used for the mining industry, occasionally for the NWT territorial government, as well as for emergency rescue missions.
"That's where the Hercs are really good and reliable and the perfect aircraft," said Bert van der Stege, First Air's vice-president of commercial operations.
But after five years of what van der Stege plainly described as a "loss-making business", the company recognized demand for the Hercules wasn't picking up as hoped and announced it was selling the C-130s as part of a wider modernization strategy. The funds that would have been used for the maintenance and operation of the Hercs are being reallocated to the company's emphasis on scheduled services, van der Stege said.
"Now we're really focusing on our current fleet of 737s and ATRs (aircraft)," he said. "And still (being) able to serve the customers that we used to serve without the cost associated with it."
The morning of its last flight, the airline company signed a new strategic agreement with Lynden. It means mining companies, government charters and other organizations in the NWT can still order Hercules freight services through First Air, but they would now be operated by Lynden.
The strategic agreement came out of an ongoing need for a "Herc solution", van der Stege said. He called Lynden a reliable airline partner, citing the company's pre-existing relationship with First Air and its status as the largest operator of Hercules aircraft in the world with a total of eight C-130 planes. Pricing for the new Lynden Hercules services will depend on the amount of flying and frequency.
However, van der Stege was careful to explain that in the days before the announcement, First Air made sure to meet with all of their customers to explain the change, with many of those collective meetings including major executives from the mines.
Lynden's president and chief executive officer Rick Zerkel said the age of many of the Hercules planes means maintenance is the highest cost of keeping them in the air, followed by payroll and then fuel.
Zerkel, said the most important thing he wanted clients to know was that heavy lift services would still be available. "We're only three-and-a-half hours away," he said.
As part of a larger group of companies that is privately-owned with low debt, Zerkel said Lynden Air Cargo was well positioned for down turns. "The Herc is a niche market, it always has been," he said, acknowledging demand has fluctuated as wildly as when the company wished it had 25 planes to get a job done to periods when there wasn't enough business to justify one. "We've been through this before," he said.
Zerkel acknowledged the multi-decade age of some of the existing Hercules aircraft meant manufacturer Lockheed Martin is currently looking into a viable commercial model of its C-130J military plane. However, Zerkel said the possible acquisition costs of the L-100J still have to be analyzed.
Finally, Zerkel was careful to mention that the agreement between First Air and Lynden was still subject to regulatory approval by Canadian aviation authorities, which they hoped to secure in two to three weeks.
"The wheels of government turn slowly everywhere," he said with a smile.
