Knowing I would spend some time in Victoria in 2016, I planned a visit of the Viking Air Ltd installations, the Canadian company who now builds the famous Twin Otter Series 400. This company is unknown from a majority of Canadians since its production is essentially exported. Out of one hundred aircrafts produced so far, only two were bought by a Canadian company. Viking also offers maintenance service for the Twin Otter Series 100 to 300 in activity around the world.
In the beginning of 2016, Bombardier and Viking sealed a commercial deal that now makes Viking the new owner of the patents and designs for the CL-215 and CL-415 water bombers. Viking not only services the existing Twin Otters but is evaluating the possibility of restarting the production of the CL-415 water bombers. All is resting on the demand. But with more extreme meteorological conditions fueling a growing number of major forest fires, one can expect that within the next few years Viking will reactivate the production.
With the on-going regulatory changes actually taking place in China, Viking is confident to see an increase in its orders for the Twin Otter Series 400 on floats. The company will receive, at their Victoria installations in 2016, the first flight simulator essentially dedicated to training pilots on the Twin Otter on floats.
For now, Russia is Viking’s most important customer despite the ups and downs linked to the political crisis between that country and Ukraine combined with a ruble devaluation that have forced a slowdown in the production of aircrafts destined to Russian companies. With the recent stabilization in the political situation, Viking has been able to hire back numerous workers which now brings the count to at least 350 employees, if my memory does not fail me.
Nowadays, most Canadians ignore that a Canadian company has restarted the production of the Twin Otters and is evaluating the possibility of also relaunching the production of the CL-415 water bombers. In the meantime, some CL-215s recently acquired by Viking will possibly be transformed into the more powerful CL-415 version. The only thing now missing for Viking is an important order from a Canadian company: that would make its name as well-known as Bombardier or De Havilland.
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