Big day for Voyageur

Thursday was a big day at Voyageur Aviation in North Bay.

Their new Dash 8-100 package freighter plane was unveiled.

The announcement was made in the hangar at Voyageur by president Scott Tapson.

He says the aircraft was built by Bombardier in Downsview and then shipped here.

“We do the modifications, we take out the passenger interior and we install all the bits and pieces that we engineered and developed,” Tapson says.

Voyageur also announced that they’ve signed a contract to deliver two of their planes to Wasaya Airways of Thunder Bay.

President Michael Rodyniuk couldn’t be happier with the purchase.

“It’s built for, specifically, our environment which is really rugged. We’re flying in to gravel strips that are 3,500 feet long and 100 feet wide,” he says.

The plane has a payload of 10,000 pounds and was rebuilt inside from a passenger plane to a freighter plane.

Tapson says the planes will do quite well against some of their competitors, saying others can’t carry a similar amount of payload and their plane is a more rugged aircraft too.

Max Shapiro who has been the face of Voyageur for 4 decades says it was a proud day for him.

“It’s a real neat tribute to our engineering department, which we grew in-house, which we grew from scratch and I’m very proud,” he added.

Voyageur was established in 1968.