Pacific Western Airlines Boeing 767's
It always fascinates me to look back over my own time in the aviation industry at some of the (often controversial) events during the evolution of the industry in Canada.
In retrospect, the early 1980's was certainly a time of transition as airline route regulation was a hotly debated topic and the eventual deregulation of the industry led to turbulence that lasted well into the 2000's.
Pacific Western Airlines was a very successful regional airline with ambitions of growing well beyond a niche market. In 1979, they ordered four Boeing 767-200's and applied for rights to expand their market across the country. Air Canada (still a crown corporation) lobbied hard against PWA's application and was successful.
PWA had taken delivery of two B-767-200's in early 1983 but had to cancel the remaining two aircraft. Registrations C-GPWA & C-GPWB were utilized within the western Canada market until 1985 when they were sold to Air Canada. They retained their registrations and Fin #'s (671 & 672) and continued in service for close to 20 years.
According to planespotters.net, both aircraft have been stored in the desert. Pictures of them in storage can be found on the internet, but, the images are difficult to look at.
The image below (courtesy of Caz Caswell) shows us a beautiful aircraft in PWA's stylish livery; it is a shame that at least one of these aircraft is not preserved in its original livery. However, models have been available since 2018.
See modelairliner.com/pacific-western-boeing-767 for images of the models and more info on the history of these aircraft.
Editor's Note:
I asked Ken Pickford for his insight on these aircraft and he provided his personal recollection.
"I flew on at least one (possibly both) of the PW B-767's while they were with PW, both SEA-YVR (not the ideal widebody route), one in June 1984 and again in February 1985, three months before they went to AC.
Those SEA-YVR flights continued to YYC-YQR (or YXE)-YWG. Apart from possibly the odd charter, I think those 6 cities were the only PW B767 destinations. No doubt the only widebody service Regina and Saskatoon have ever had, apart from possibly a few charters on Wardair etc."
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