Helping new pilots earn their wings

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This article was published 08/05/2019 (2403 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

When Exchange Income Corp. (EIC) acquired Perimeter Aviation in 2004 — the first acquisition for what is now a billion-dollar diversified corporation — the company promised the airline’s founder, Bill Wehrle, that it would not treat the First Nations communities that it flies into as just another customer.

EIC chief executive officer Mike Pyle said, “Bill made me swear to him certain things about how we treat First Nation communities… that we weren’t going to come in and just take whatever we can.”

EIC has kept that in mind and operates a number of community-building programs, and when Wehrle died in 2015, EIC decided to set up a scholarship in his name. To be eligible for the Bill Wehrle Scholarship, students must identify as Indigenous, hold a Grade 12 diploma and have an active interest in the field of aviation.

The first recipient, Timothy (Tik) Mason from St. Theresa Point First Nation, spoke at EIC’s annual meeting in Winnipeg on Wednesday.

Mason chipped away at earning his pilot’s licence for about five years, taking time off to make more money to afford the training. He’s got his commercial pilot licence and is now enrolled in a one-month instructor’s program at Moncton Flight College (MFC), which EIC also owns, so that he can build up enough experience and flight hours as an instructor to qualify to fly for Perimeter, which is his goal.

“St. Theresa Point is only accessible by air in the summer,” Mason said, adding that having pilots from the communities that the airline serves “is not only a good thing for Perimeter, it’s good for the community.”

“On the social side, First Nations youth on the reserves can see a role model. It can be something they can look forward to, to pull then away from negative things. If they are looking for what to do, they can now imagine that being a pilot is a possibility.”

As the inaugural recipient of the scholarship, Mason is the poster child for an even larger effort on the part of EIC and its half-dozen airlines to recruit and train more pilots. And ideally, EIC wants to recruit more pilots — and technical staff — from the communities that its airlines operate in. (In addition to Perimeter, EIC also owns Calm Air, Keewatin Air, Bearskin Airlines and Newfoundland-based Provincial Aerospace, and has a partnership with Wasaya Airways.)

Airlines and industry observers have warned of a global pilot shortage that is expected to get worse. EIC companies, including MFC and its airlines, employ about 600 pilots.

In an effort to help recruit, train and retain pilots, EIC has launched an integrated training program called Life in Flight with MFC that helps provide student loans, while also guaranteeing both a pathway to employment with one of its airlines and forgiveness of $25,000 of the loan after five years of employment.

MFC CEO Mike Tilley said the integrated program is going to help a lot of people who would otherwise not be able to enter the industry.

“This whole access-to-funding piece that we launched today is going to be a game-changer for a lot of people, especially people like Tik,” Tilley said. “It can be an expensive proposition.”

David White, EIC’s executive vice-president of aviation, said that to his understanding, it is the most comprehensive pathway program offered by any company in Canada’s airline industry.

The program includes a guarantee of a position as an instructor at MFC, which helps the pilots gain sufficient flying hours to qualify to fly a commercial plane. This is followed by guaranteed employment with one of EIC’s airlines.

“The difference with our program is that as candidates are accepted, they go on to be instructors and get experience and they already know their next step is going to be with Keewatin or Perimeter or Provincial Aerospace,” White said.

MFC currently has about 500 students in two bases in New Brunswick, including 300 students from China.

Another crucial piece to the program, and ultimately the long-term success of EIC’s regional airlines, will be its ability to recruit students from the northern communities that it operates from, including Inuit students from Nunavut, where Calm Air does a lot of business.

The thinking is that pilots and staff who are from the North are more likely to want to continue working and living in the North.

martin.cash@freepress.mb.ca