Twin Otter planes get green light for skies

Viking Air's new Twin Otter reached a major milestone after Transport Canada granted the plane certification yesterday at the Farnborough International Airshow in the United Kingdom.

"It was a huge deal – the biggest single thing that we needed in order to start delivering airplanes to customers, " Dave Curtis, Viking president and CEO, said from Farnborough. "It means the airplane has met all of the regulatory requirements. The design is now approved and recognized as an approved type."

Certification is complex. For example, the Twin Otter features a fully integrated flight deck, including safety systems and avionics. Reliability testing and certification around avionics, primary flight displays, aircraft systems software is complicated, rigorous and takes a long time, Curtis said.

Viking is at the Farnborough Airshow – a major event in international aeronautics – to showcase its first production Twin Otter aircraft. The plane is being flown out of the U.K. on Monday and delivered in Zurich to Zimex Aviation.

The Twin Otter is the culmination of Viking's dream to revive the well-known and versatile aircraft, last produced by de Havilland more than two decades ago. Viking is owned by Westerkirk Capital Inc. of Toronto, which has exclusive rights to manufacture and distribute parts for the de Havilland aircraft. It also provides support to owners of the original models.

Parts are made at Viking's North Saanich facility and final assembly is done in Calgary. Curtis said that these facilities, with 475 staff in total, will continue to fulfil those functions in the future. Calgary has 112 employees and the remainder are in Victoria, Curtis said.

At the same time, Viking is looking into how to supply Twin Otters to customers globally. Some countries have massive import barriers, such as Russia with a 40 per cent import duty on finished aircraft, Curtis said.

"We've said that we are not going to be able to supply the world, all of the world, from our Calgary base," he said.

Viking has signed a memorandum of understanding with Vityaz Avia Corp. of Moscow, which has put deposits on two Twin Otters. Under that agreement, if Vityaz Avia comes up with a certain number of orders from Russian clients, Viking would consider putting a final assembly plant there, Curtis said. All the critical products, such as wings and cockpits, would come from Victoria.

Under this type of scenario, the North Saanich plant could supply final assembly facilities in different parts of the world to access those markets, he said. "Russia is a huge market for us. The Twin Otter is perfectly suited for the Russian environment [as] many areas there are similar to the Canadian climate/arctic."

Viking has a production backlog estimated at more than $200 million through 2014. Orders have come in for just over 50 planes.

"Our challenge is we have, for instance, a government entity in South America that's come to us to say we want nine aircraft but we want the first one next year. So we don't have the capacity. All of our airplanes are sold. So we are working with other customers to free up positions in order to leverage them into the bigger sales."

Viking can supply between 12 and 24 aircraft annually from Victoria and Calgary facilities, he said.

Because certification took longer than anticipated, there are 11 or 12 planes in final assembly in Calgary, instead of the seven or eight that should be at that stage, he said. "The facility just can't hold any more product. We've got our certification so now we can start delivering airplanes and there are three that will go fairly quickly."

"What we've had to do is slow down Victoria just a bit, to allow Calgary to catch up," Curtis said.

Unionized employees with Local 114 of the Canadian Auto Workers' Union voted 80 per cent in favour of a plan which would see them working for Viking four days a week and receiving employment insurance on the fifth, said Gord Piper, union local servicing representative. That proposal still has to be approved by the federal government.

The CAW represents 250 members at the plant and did not take a position on this matter, Piper said. "Everybody is hoping it (the shorter work week) will be as short as possible."

The plan is aimed at retaining trades and avoiding layoffs, Curtis said.