By Lisa Gordon | April 11, 2016 Estimated reading time 4 minutes, 2 seconds.
On March 7, 2016, KF Aerospace officials made the decision to pull the plug on the Toronto operation. Andy Cline Photo
Less than a year after KF Aerospace relocated its jet cargo business to Toronto’s Lester B. Pearson International Airport, it has closed the operation down.
Established on May 27, 2015, the cargo arm was heavily promoted in the hopes of putting KF’s jet freighters back to work after the significant loss of Canada Post and Purolator contracts to Mississauga-based Cargojet.
But on March 7, 2016, KF Aerospace officials made the decision to pull the plug on the Toronto operation.
“It wasn’t economically viable, so we’re discontinuing the operation at Pearson,” confirmed Bryan Akerstream, the director of business development at KF Aerospace. “We came to the conclusion that there is too much belly freight capacity in the market, at least for the North Atlantic route we were flying, and there isn’t space for an all-cargo carrier.”
He added that KF Aerospace looked for other cargo opportunities, but the global economic downturn is having a heavy impact on all-cargo operations. “It’s depressing the rates, so it’s a double-edged sword,” Akerstream told Skies. “You need either the volume or the yield, and we were finding we were hit in both areas.”
KF Aerospace has laid off eight staff members from its Toronto cargo operation, with four maintenance personnel transferred to the company’s heavy maintenance operations in Hamilton and Kelowna, B.C. Andy Cline Photo
On March 18, KF Aerospace ferried the two McDonnell Douglas DC-10 aircraft that had serviced its cargo operation to nearby Hamilton International Airport.
“They won’t operate out of Hamilton,” said Akerstream. “We’re looking at potential options including sale or lease. We have no intention of operating them ourselves.”
He added that Boeing 727 freighters, originally included in the Pearson cargo plan, have been reassigned to Hamilton over the last few months. Some have since been sold or parted out, and some are still sitting in Hamilton. “We have nothing on the books for them.”
KF Aerospace has laid off eight staff members from its Toronto cargo operation, with four maintenance personnel transferred to the company’s heavy maintenance operations in Hamilton and Kelowna, B.C.
“It’s difficult for us and all our employees, but we will focus on those things returning a realistic revenue,” said Akerstream. “Fortunately, we have a pretty large scope of operations.”
For the immediate future, he said the company will continue its cargo operation for Purolator Canada’s B.C. feeder service. “As it stands now, we’ll focus on feeder, heavy maintenance in Hamilton and Kelowna, and military pilot training in Southport [Man.], and selling that training capacity around the world.”
Akerstream said KF Aerospace will continue to look at other potential options for different airframes.
