Kelowna Flightcraft

Kelowna Flightcraft is an aviation enterprise in British Columbia. It operates a commercial airline under the same name offering scheduled domestic services and domestic, continental, and international charter flights, as well as a manufacturing, sales and service division called KF Helicopters.

Kelowna Flightcraft serves eight domestic destinations with scheduled flights.

History
Kelowna Aviation, Ltd, specialising in the maintenance and overhaul of floatplanes, was established in 1961 after purchasing Supermarine's floatplane facility on the north shore of Ellison Lake, Kelowna.

Kelowna Aviation began ad hoc charter operations in 1962 using three DHC-2 Beaver floatplanes; two years later, it bought all nine of Air BC's Bristol Britannias and began regular, primarily seasonal, charter flights between Kelowna and destinations such as Las Vegas and Reno. These proved a great success, and in March of 1970, Kelowna Aviation entered the jet age with the purchase of five Convair CV-990 jetliners from Air BC, which were used to inaugurate the first regularly scheduled passenger services on the Kelowna–Prince George route, and replacing the Britannias on the Las Vegas and Reno operations. Six months later, Inter-Dominion's entire De Havilland Comet 4 fleet (fourteen aircraft) was purchased, with scheduled services to Vancouver, Victoria, and Dawson Creek being added.

In 1991, the company was renamed Kelowna Flightcraft, under which name it continues to operate scheduled and charter passenger and cargo flights, and since 1992 a subsidiary, KF Helicopters, was established.

KF Helicopters
KF Helicopters is the North American representative of the Russian Mil and Kamov helicopter manufacturers, building, selling, and servicing the helicopters of these manufacturers for BC, Canadian, American, and Mexican customers. Helicopters destined for these customers are assembled by KF Helicopters from partial kits - in most cases, North American customers opt for North American or European-made powerplants and avionics, which are installed into airframes assembled in Kelowna from knock-down kits supplied from Russia.

Fleet
Kelowna Flightcraft operates a total of 15 aircraft.

Current

 * Boeing 737-300F - 6 (2002 to date), cargo, acquired second-hand
 * Boeing 737-800 - 9 (2013 to date), acquired second-hand

Historic

 * Boeing 737-200QC - 9 (1982–2003), acquired second-hand
 * Bristol Britannia 310 - 9 (1964–1980), ex Air BC
 * Convair CV-990 - 5 (1970–1976), ex Air BC
 * De Havilland Comet 4 - 6 (1970–1984), ex Inter-Dominion
 * De Havilland Comet 4C - 13 (1970–1986), 8 ex Inter-Dominion in 1970, 5 ex Air BC in 1971
 * DHBC-7 Trident 7A(C) - 3 (1996–2014), ex Panagra Airways; converted to Combi in 1996
 * DHBC-7 Trident 7B - 1 (1996–2008), ex Continental Airlines
 * DHBC-7 Trident 7B(C) - 2 (1996–2015), ex Panagra Airways; 1 converted to Combi in 1996, 1 in 2000
 * DHBC-7C Trident 7C(C) - 3 (1996–2016), ex Panagra Airways; converted to Combi in 1996
 * DHC-2 Beaver - (1962–1972), acquired second-hand
 * Sud Aviation SE-210 Caravelle III - 5 (1975–1984), ex Air BC

BC-made aircraft
''Note: a green background indicates an aircraft in service, a yellow background indicates a retired aircraft, and a pink background indicates an aircraft lost in an accident.

Routes


Entries with a green background indicates a destination in British Columbia.