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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."

As mentioned above in 'Submitted Photos', Christine Hayvice has published a book entitled 'Arrivals and Departures' chronicling the evolution and work of various unions including her own personal experiences as a union representative while employed by Canadian Pacific Air Lines. The book covers 60 years beginning in 1942 up until the merger between Canadian Airlines and Air Canada. The book is available, in a limited edition, if you live in the Greater Vancouver, British Columbia area. You can purchase the book by contacting This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Arrangements for purchase and delivery throughout the rest of Canada and internationally are currently in process.
Christine has provided an audio file introducing her book.

Neil Burton suggested our 'Featured Video' for this issue from the Greater Vernon Museum and Archives containing footage of the opening of the Vernon B.C. airport in 1931.



Found on the CP Air Employees Facebook page

Photos posted by Gary Macdonald
A CPA Beauty	Nostalgic CPA photo


Billie Hobkirk posted this photo of a fam trip to LAX in July 1976. Pictured are: Al Drummond, Glenda, Liz, Steve Waring, Martha and Angie Brodkorb.


Canadian Pacific Air Lines (CPAL), the predecessor to CP Air, acquired a fleet of 17 surplus C-47's during 1946 and 1947. The aircraft were refurbished and entered service on domestic routes mainly to remote communities in Canada. With the withdrawal of these services in the late 1950s CPAL began selling off its fleet of DC-3s however, CF-CRX remained with CP Air for pilot training purposes. On July 4 1974 CF-CRX was used to fly a group of Air Cadets on a tour of the Fraser Valley, BC. The group landed at Abbotsford and after taking off the pilot was unable to get a positive indication that the landing gear had retracted. The pilot had no alternative but to return to Abbotsford and the crew and passengers were taken to Vancouver by bus. The following day CF-CRX was ferried to Vancouver with its landing gear down and on October 23, 1974 the aircraft was sold. END OF AN ERA - The last propeller-driven aircraft owned by CP Air, a venerable DC-3 used for pilot training, has been sold to Harrison Airways Ltd. of Vancouver. Retired from scheduled flights in 1969 when all-jet service was introduced throughout the system, the twin-engined Douglas was once one of 17 such aircraft which plied the airline's routes in Canada. It is still favourite with Northern flyers and will return to familiar areas in schedule service between Vancouver and Northern bases when it sheds its CP Air orange in the near future and dons Harrison Airways colours. Above, Harrison Airways president J. N. Haldeman accepts the aircraft log from CP Air purchasing director Vern Pratt. Source: cpair.blogspot.com


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