When Manitoba-based pilot Dylan Fast founded Fast Air in 1995, his mind was on job security. His initial business model provided charter flights on one turboprop aircraft. Twenty years later, he’s at the helm of Winnipeg’s largest fleet of business aircraft, operating nine King Airs, managing six private jets, and running a successful maintenance business and a booming medevac operation. 

“I was flying a [Piper] Cheyenne for somebody . . . and he didn’t have a lot of work,” Fast told Skies during a recent visit to the company’s facility in Winnipeg. “I looked at the Winnipeg market and I saw there were really no turboprops for charter here, and it was job preservation because he didn’t have work. So I said, ‘You know what, let me start a charter company.’ There was no vision that I was going to have 90 employees and 16 or 17 aircraft and all these divisions. That wasn’t what it was about, it was job preservation!”

Just a few short years into the business, Fast had purchased four aircraft and was quickly learning to explore every opportunity that came his way. He stocked up on Beechcraft King Air 200s for charter operations, launched an internal maintenance shop, and when the opportunity presented itself through a jet owner who wanted an aircraft chartered out, Fast ventured into the aircraft management world. 

Despite the company’s quick and successful growth, Fast has remained grounded. When telling stories of the company’s successes through the years, he speaks in terms of “we” and “us,” rarely taking sole credit for the accomplishments that have made his business so successful. Fast Air is a family business at heart, and its achievements are shared within the tight-knit group. 

“Without employees you have nothing. They are everything,” he said. “I really try to keep it a small company mentality, I really do. If I can’t do that, I’m not even interested in being in business  . . . I have many customers tell me, ‘You know, you obviously are doing things right because people are so friendly and so happy here.’ That’s extremely important to me.”

Fast Air’s inviting and friendly attitude is reflected in the atmosphere when customers enter the company’s private terminal near Winnipeg James Armstrong Richardson International Airport. The facility is welcoming, comfortable and personal, and it’s what keeps customers returning. 

Fast Air’s charter aircraft run regular missions to Northern Manitoba communities for private and public organizations. The company also transports general contractors and engineers to work sites in tough-to-reach locations. But the pilots also fly across North America in the company’s King Airs, or to Europe and the Caribbean on externally-owned and Fast Air-managed Gulfstream G150 business jets. 

“We’re getting a lot of charter customers now on the G150s. They’ve been really busy with charters, which is great,” said Fast Air pilot Shane Griffin. “The furthest I’ve gone so far is Saint Martin in the Caribbean . . . It was over seven hours of flight time, so that was really neat.”

Griffin has been with Fast Air for five years and flew medevacs and charters on King Airs, before advancing to his current position as a Gulfstream pilot. “It’s a beautiful airplane, it’s got a great avionics package, and it’s very comfortable,” he told Skies. 

In addition to the eight company-owned King Air 200s, Fast Air manages a King Air 350, the three Gulfstream jets, two Westwinds, and a Hawker aircraft. 

Anthony Dyck, Fast Air’s general manager, said the convenience factor of flying Fast Air is a big attraction for customers. The company’s terminal is completely private, allowing customers to fly at any time of day and maintain anonymity, if desired. The company takes a personalized approach with each of its clients and strives to build lasting relationships.

“A lot of our corporate jet pilots have been here anywhere between five and 15 years, so a lot of the time you’re getting the same pilot flying you over and over again and you sort of get that little bit of a relationship built,” he explained. “A lot of our owners know which pilots are flying them, and they know them on a personal level because they’ve flown with them so many times. There’s a big comfort level.”

The relationships that Fast Air builds with its customers give the company an edge when it comes to retaining charter business in Winnipeg’s small, yet competitive, market. A lot of the company’s new business comes from word-of-mouth messaging, sales and logistics manager Shelley Gerbrandt told Skies. 

Each client’s experience is customized, from what kind of snacks are on board, to complimentary car washes upon their return. Gerbrandt said those little things are why people stay so committed to Fast Air.

“They’ll work their schedule around ours sometimes if they want to fly,” she said. “They won’t even ask anybody else, they’ll work around what we have available. That always makes me happy.”

As the company’s charter business continues to grow with more international flights, the maintenance side of the business has increased as well. Fast Air’s internal maintenance team recently equipped six of its King Air 200s with Garmin G1000 avionics systems, and five are now equipped with Centex Aerospace’s HALO 250 kits, which allow for an increased gross weight capacity of nearly 1,000 pounds.

“You can pretty much take full fuel on most trips, so for up north it’s brilliant,” said pilot Shane Griffin of the HALO kit upgrade.

Safety is top of mind with Fast Air, so the upgrades have allowed the company to make huge strides in giving its clients peace of mind when they step into an aircraft.

Fast Air pilots also feel the benefit of operating more sophisticated equipment as weather in Manitoba, especially moving north, is far from predictable.

“Pilots are able to know exactly the conditions they’re in, the situation they’re in, and focus more on the flying,” said Dyck. “It’s common across the fleet, so when a pilot gets out of one King Air and steps into another it’s the same avionics suite. Everything is where it was on the last plane that they flew, so it’s a comfort level and you get into a rhythm . . . that adds huge value to the customer’s sense of safety.”

Fast Air is the first facility in Canada to install a Garmin G1000 avionics system in a King Air 200, and sees the upgrade as a new growth opportunity for its maintenance department. As always for Fast Air, growth is linked to opportunity, and with the added skill set of the maintenance department, third-party conversions have presented themselves as a natural progression. 

“We’re doing more Garmin installs, working on other people’s aircraft,” said Fast. “I like growth that’s controlled and we know exactly what we’re doing . . . I want to make sure we do it well and that when we do it, the customers we attract are also happy with it.”

Providing value to customers is at the forefront of this philosophy, and all avenues of growth for Fast Air. Chad Roberts is customer projects coordinator and a Fast Air maintenance veteran who spent three days at Garmin’s facility studying the G1000 system, gaining the knowledge to provide top quality work.

“It’s a fantastic system. I think a lot of people are looking to do upgrades to their aircraft and the guys that we’ve got doing it are really, really good,” he said. “We feel pretty confident we’re turning out a great product when it’s done and people are happy, so that’s what we would like to get into a lot more.”

When it comes to growth, Fast takes a somewhat unconventional approach to business. He tries not to look too far ahead, instead focusing on how the company can do things better within its current offerings. By zeroing in on day-to-day activities, the company can watch opportunities come to it, rather than chasing them. 

One of the biggest catalysts for growth came when Fast Air established its medevac operation 12 years ago. Today, the operator has four King Airs dedicated to the operation and medevac bases in Norway House, Thompson, Island Lake, and Winnipeg, Man.

“It’s all about opportunity. We saw an opportunity, a niche market for that. We had an extra King Air and it’s one of those things you don’t know until you try, but we did our research and opportunity came there, and so that’s what we did,” said Fast. “Everything we do is aviation, but part of that is not aviation, it’s medicine. So that was a big step for us.”

Fast is humble when it comes to the future, as the company strives to keep its family mentality and small-company approach towards its customers and employees.

  

“Dylan looks after his clients very well and therefore we all follow that rule,” said Gerbrandt. “What I find is we just need to get the people in the door and once they’ve been in here, we always have repeat customers.”

Even now that Fast Air maintains the largest fleet of business aircraft in Manitoba, Fast has bi-weekly company barbecues and Christmas parties on his schedule. Each employee Skies spoke with referenced their co-workers as family and spoke of Dylan Fast with the highest regard.

“It really is very much a family atmosphere,” said Roberts. “There aren’t too many companies you can go to and have the president come onto the floor and he’ll be teasing someone about, you know, the truck they drive because there’s that personal relationship. Yet when you look at the size of the operation we have, we’re not that small.”

A testament to its entrepreneurial founder and enthusiastic team, Fast Air raises the bar for charter operators in Winnipeg.

“Customer focus is huge,” concluded Dyck. “You want to be different than everybody else . . . when our customers step onto a Fast Air aircraft, they know they’re stepping onto a Fast Air aircraft.”