Abbotsford’s Conair continues to help battle fires all across the globe and last month introduced the Dash 8-400AT to the province of Alberta.
The aircraft has been in operation since 2005 beginning its usage by the government of France, but was then introduced to Australia in 2020, Alaska in 2021 and British Columbia last year.
The fleet has grown steadily over the last several years as new airtankers are certified by Transport Canada, the only regulating authority in the world recognizing aerial firefighting as its own air operation classification, with stringent guidelines in place to ensure airtankers operating in Canada do so safely.
RELATED: Conair in Abbotsford deploys firefighting aircraft to B.C., Alberta, Alaska and Yukon
Conair has a fleet of 70 aerial firefighting aircraft that have been deployed for the fire season in 2023, which includes a mix of fixed-wing aircraft including Bird Dog lead planes, amphibious waterbombers and airtankers.
Four of the Dash 8-400AT’s worked the month of May in Alberta, a first for the province, responding to a challenging and early fire season, supporting firefighter partners.
There are currently three Dash 8-400AT’s in B.C – one in Fort St. John and two stationed in Penticton. Those three aircrafts have replaced the now retired Convair CV580 fleet.
“Retiring our legacy fleet of Electra L188 and Convair CV580 aircraft was necessary as the supply of parts was dwindling globally,” stated Jeff Berry, vice-president of business development with Conair. “We reached a point where we could not guarantee the serviceability needed for an emergency response aircraft so we proactively replaced our fleet with a modern airtanker. The Dash is fully supported by De Havilland Canada, the Original Equipment Manufacturer, ensuring an abundant supply of parts is readily available to keep the airtanker flying for decades. This provides the level of reliability we require.”
The fleet of Dash 8-400AT is expanding, with two more currently in production this year and more on the horizon as demand grows.
The company will also have a presence this summer in Alaska and Washington State, with Dash’s on-call if needed.
According to Conair, the Dash 8-400AT fits the bill for all regions across Canada, filling a growing niche in the aerial firefighting industry. It offers large airtanker payload capacity,capable of dropping up to 10,000 litres of retardant, foam or water, while still being able to operate out of smaller airtanker bases with 5,000’ runways at higher elevations, positioned closer to where wildfires occur.
For over 50 years Conair has partnered with governments around the globe, providing the largest fixed-wing, privately owned fleet of aerial firefighting aircraft in the world to protect people, communities and resources from wildfires.