Aviation Memorabilia Newsletter

1948 - December 1st - Service between Canada and Nassau, Jamaica and Trinidad commence with North Star equipment.

1963 - November 22nd - Company announced the order for (6) DC-9 aircraft. (Pictured)

1983 - April 24th - Service resumed to Dusseldorf from YVR, YYZ, YUL with stops at LHR and Paris with L1011 equipment. Previously Dusseldorf was served from 1952 to 1966.

1986 - April - AirBC timetable from the collection of Bjorn Larsson. (Pictured)

 Found in the "Between Ourselves" magazine issue December 1963

A company Viscount, piloted by Captain Rene Giguere, made a symbolic flight on November 12th, 1963 from Winnipeg's old terminal and landed half an hour later as the first plane to touch down at a new $10m air terminal. Captain Giguere was the TCA pilot to operate out of the old airport in 1937, so it was appropriate that he was the last pilot out of the old airport.

The Viscount flight lasted for approximately 28 minutes during which the aircraft circled Winnipeg and then swooped low past the new terminal to allow the photographers to take a panoramic picture. Company officials, 50 newspapermen and Department of Transport officials were also passengers aboard the first flight into the terminal.

In the photo from the left: R. W. Lockhart, Station Operations Manager, Winnipeg; W. E. Fenn, DOT; Captain W. J. I. Montgomery, Check Pilot, Winnipeg; Captain R. M.Giguere, Flight Operations Manager, Winnipeg; Margaret Pascoe, Stewardess; J. N. Donnelly, Regional Operations Manager, Vancouver; J. E. Smythe, DOT.

Captain Giguere's flight preceded by a half hour, the first scheduled flight to use the new facilities which was a TCA DC-8 flight nr. 807, under the command of Captain Herb Russell. (Pictured)

Half a million homes were brightened during Christmas 1963 with Yuletide decorations such as the ones shown in this photo.

Vancouver ground hostess, Margaret Bishop, admires the samples which were part of a 44 ton shipment airlifted from Vancouver to New York. Made in Hong Kong (where else!-eds) they were brought to YVR by the Arizona, a US line freighter and transferred to the company flights.

Found in the “Horizons” magazine Issue dated January 1983

The Air Canada Pionairs Board of Directors held its sixth annual meeting in Vancouver in 1982.

Shown at the meeting are District Directors, back row. from the left: Ron Williams, Victoria, substituting for Tony Butler; Jack Somerset, Vancouver; Roger Alain, Florida; Don Jarvis. Calgary; Beth Ferguson, Winnipeg; Gord Smith. Toronto; Mary Young, Ottawa; Evelyn Desjardins, Montreal; and Tony Bruneau, Halifax.

Seated, from the left. are: Martin Betts, Pension Representative; Bill Spratt, First Vice President: Dorothy Grant, Secretary; Ozzie Candy, Second Vice President; President George Fox and Joe Lorimer, Immediate Past President. 

For the past 5 years, the Halifax staff had been entering a company float in a number of parades across the province of Nova Scotia, garnering a number of trophies along the way. Here are the crew for 1982.

Standing from the left. are Jim Kirby. Passenger Sales Manager: Gerry Simpson. In-Flight: Charlie Stock. General Manager. Nova Scotia: Joyce Burris, wife of Arnold Burris. Millwright: Ian MacKenzie. In-Flight; Jim McClue, Maintenance Manager: Ron Banks, Supply Supervisor arid Ken McLeod. Sales Representative.

Seated. from the left: are: Arnold Burris: Nicole Beland, In-Flight; Starr Williams, Statistics Clerk; Linda Tanner and Bob McKinnon, In-Flight.

Missing from the photo are: SyIvana McKinnon, Desiree Conn, Gloria Doyle and Sandy Molson, all of ln-Flight and Station Attendant Derek Burris.

(Does anyone know where the trophies would be? - eds)