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| Johannes Joop Gerritsma |
Mr. Gerritsma's Saunders Aircraft article was published in Volume 35 No. 5 of the Canadian Aviation Historical Society (CAHS) Journal in the Winter 1997.
This excellent article provides new details on the Saunders Aircraft story and we are using it to cross check our own Saunders Aircraft information.
Did Mr. Gerritsma had a personal connection to Saunders Saunders Aircraft, we do not know, if some does know or why his interest in Saunders Aircraft, please email us.
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| Johannes Joop Gerritsma Saunders Aircraft article, page 1, courtesy of the CAHS Journal. |
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| Johannes Joop Gerritsma Saunders Aircraft article, serial numbers cross-reference page , courtesy of the CAHS Journal. |
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| Johannes Joop Gerritsma Saunders Aircraft article, acknowledgements - reference page , courtesy of the CAHS Journal. |
PDF of Joop Gerritsma Saunders Aircraft article 1979
Mr. Gerritsma's 1997 article in the CAHS Journal was excellent (as was Ken's presentation to the 2022 CAHS convention in Winnipeg -- I was in attendance.) I would like to point a minor inaccuracy aforementioned 1997 article, specifically the details of the proposed Skywest mini-airline proposed by the governments of Manitoba and Saskatchewan to serve points without scheduled air service since Transair's Midwest Airlines subsidiary ended service to points like Dauphin, MB, and Yorkton, SK. The Skywest proposal foresaw Ottawa buying two, possibly three ST-27s and leasing them for $1 a year to Skywest, which would then pick an operator, public or private. The two provinces promised several years of subsidies for this service.
ReplyDeleteThe article said this proposal foundered on the insistence of Saskatchewan's "Labour" government to have the service operated by its government air division, Norcanair. Not so. The insistence, initially at least, of having a government entity operate the service (under contract to the Skywest holding company) came from the NDP government of Manitoba. Norcanair was a fully private company then based in Prince
Albert, SK.
For its part, the federal government's regulator, the Canadian Transport Commission, seemed bothered by the possibility that another provincial government entity would operate an airline -- this was, after all, in the wake of the 1974 decision of the Alberta government to buy a controlling interest in Pacific Western Airlines. After the CTC delayed approval of the Skywest project in the face of opposition from private airlines, Saskatchewan and Manitoba dropped the out of the project. The federal transport ministry retooled the proposal as a subsidy to designated airline serving at least some of these points. Perimeter Aviation of Winnipeg won the contract and subsidy. (The author took a Perimeter flight from Winnipeg to Brandon in 1979.) I have not been able to find evidence Perimeter also served Yorkton.