A new Twin Otter plane in front of the Viking Air facility at the Victoria International Airport.
Photograph by: Adrian Lam, Victoria Times Colonist Files, Vancouver Sun; With Files From Scott Simpson
As Viking Air CEO Dave Curtis told a small crowd gathered earlier this month at a hangar at Victoria International Airport for his company's handover of the first of six Twin Otter aircraft to the Vietnamese navy, it was a "very big day," for the company.
A big day and a sign of more to come as the British Columbia company continues production of the Twin Otter.
De Havilland first produced the aircraft in 1965 but discontinued production in 1988. Viking bought the rights from de Havilland, began production in 2009, and delivered the first new Twin Otter in two decades in 2010.
Vietnam's six DHC-6 Twin Otter Series 400 aircraft, which cost about $5 million each, will be primarily used for search and rescue and patrols along Vietnam's coastline. They are just a few of the Twin Otters to be built. Viking has a backlog of orders for the aircraft that will take the company through to the middle of 2015. It makes for a hectic pace - Curtis told the Victoria gathering that his company is building a plane every 15 days.
While that is an impressive backlog of orders, the company is by no means complacent.
Martin Swan, Viking's vice-president of engineering, said the challenge facing Viking and the Canadian aerospace industry is the emergence of competition from Brazil, Russia, India and China.
"It would be very foolish to underestimate any of those countries," said Swan. "These are serious contenders.
"Their products will be competing with Canadian products and, at least at Viking, we are very vigilant and we do not want to be complacent at all."
Despite the success of the Twin Otter, the company isn't taking the future for granted.
"We are very pleased with the Series 400 Twin Otter but there is a need to continue to get our costs down and to improve our products so customers will continue to hold us in high regard," said Swan. "I think the product looks bright as long as we remain competitive."
Swan said in a global economy it is imperative for Canadian companies to keep their costs in line or they risk becoming uncompetitive. Viking has about 580 employees at its operations in Calgary and Victoria and has kept its production in Canada.
While other manufacturers seek lower-cost production in Mexico and other countries, so far Viking as avoided that route and Swan said the company has no plans to take work out of the country now.
"Right now we're looking at how to remain competitive, but we are also mindful of the fact we want to be a good corporate citizen and employ Canadians as well," he said.
Swan said the company has had success in finding engineering graduates, aircraft maintenance engineers and technicians here to meet its recruiting needs.
"We are able to find people in Canada," he said. "We don't have any wild dreams of growing this company five times from where it is now in the next five years or anything like that."
Viking has ties with the University of Victoria with various programs that help students acquire skills in the industry and at the same time allow Viking to identify prospective recruits among graduating students.
Swan said fuel economy will be extremely important in his industry in the future.
"I think there will be significant improvement in engine performance in terms of the amount of fuel they burn," he said.
"On the emissions side, we are seeing improvements in Europe already.
"Who knows, by 2035 there may even be some solutions that are more favourable to the environment from a carbon footprint point of view as well.
"And we fully expect that between now and 2035 there will be lots of improvements in the avionics side of things - the instruments in the cockpit and that sort of thing."
Viking has been considering manufacturing new de Havilland Buffalo aircraft as the Canadian military considers replacing the 40-year-old Buffalos in its search-and-rescue squadrons.
While Viking is continuing to fill orders for the Twin Otter through its Victoria and Calgary operations, one of B.C.'s largest aerospace companies, Cascade Aerospace, is about to be taken over by the Halifax-based IMP Group.
IMP recently announced a deal to buy the B.C. company, which has 650 employees and operates out of facilities at Abbotsford International Airport. The deal would see Cascade join IMP's Aerospace & Defence division.
Conair Aviation, also based in Abbotsford, is the former owner of Cascade. IMP and Conair are Canadian-owned and privately held, so no financial details are available. The deal requires federal approval to proceed.
In announcing the proposed takeover, the companies said it will create a stronger entity capable of increasing Canada's participation in the international aerospace sector.
"Part of the rationale for this deal is that by combining two strong Canadian-owned companies we are going to be able to leverage growth into the international marketplace," David Schellenberg, president and CEO of Cascade Aerospace said at the time of the announcement.
"We weren't looking to sell, but when IMP approached us with this idea about putting two strong companies together, that operate in Canada in the aerospace and defence sector with a view of growing internationally, we felt that concept made some sense.
"As sort of a medium-sized company, it can be difficult to grow in the international market space if you're by yourself. So our thought is that by combining with them we will have a stronger base from which to do that."
Story and photo: http://www.vancouversun.com
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