Derek Nice becomes president and CEO effective Feb. 1. (submitted photo/West Wind Aviation)

By Derek Cornet

looking forward

New West Wind Aviation CEO incoming as company stabilizes

Jan 8, 2021 | 4:55 PM

With vaccines beginning to become available to Saskatchewan residents, West Wind Aviation CEO Stephen Smith is hopeful air traffic should be back to normal by October.

“At that point, we expect to see a nice rebound in the number of people flying and going for vacations and travelling for business and meeting each other and visiting family and friends,” he said, adding he expects anyone who wants to be inoculated by that time should be.

Smith explained air traffic for the company remains about 40 per cent of pre-COVID levels and the staff has been reduced from approximately 320 to 210. He noted chartered flights remain down, along with the number of flights servicing the uranium industry.

It was only a couple of years ago West Wind Aviation was making 40 flights per week for uranium mines, but that number has dropped to nine.

“We’ve right-sized our workforce, and our number of aircraft and flights, and we’ve positioned ourselves quite well,” Smith said. “We’ve reacted probably quicker than any other airline when COVID hit and we did the right things in terms of conserving cash and reducing our expenditures. We have survived at least the initial onslaught of COVID.”

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Smith has been acting CEO and president of West Wind Aviation since March 2020, but he will be handing over those duties to Derek Nice effective Feb. 1. Smith will be working with Nice over the coming weeks to become familiar with day-to-day activities of the company.

Nice has extensive aviation executive experience, having most recently serving as the managing director and CEO of Air Vanuatu. Smith expects Nice will have a positive impact on West Wind Aviation.

“We’re banking on that both in terms of efficiency and, once we sort of get our rock-solid base behind us, looking to see if there are some opportunities to expand into Saskatchewan and potentially to other provinces,” Smith said. “Right now, we just want to stabilize our company.”

In a media release, Nice stated he’s looking forward to moving to Saskatoon and becoming part of the community.

“I’m excited about this opportunity to work with all the dedicated employees – to build on the great strides they’ve made in moving the company forward,” he said. “I’m no stranger to Western Canada as I grew up in Edmonton and continue to have family ties in both Alberta and Saskatchewan.”

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derek.cornet@jpbg.ca

Twitter: @saskjourno