Photo: KTW archive photo.

The availability of sites with runway access at Kamloops Airport makes it an ideal location to attract more players in the aviation maintenance industry, a city councilor said.

A city councilor says Kamloops Airport land is well located to accommodate the aviation maintenance sector, with plans to attract other industry players to Fulton Field and eventually establish a training center.

Advice. Bill Sarai, President of the Kamloops Airport Authority Society, led a meeting with Lisa Beare, former Minister of Post-Secondary Education and Future Skills, at the Union of British Columbia Municipalities Conference in September. Council members raised the idea of ​​creating a learning center for airport mechanics in Kamloops.

Sarai said the former minister was receptive and supportive. He noted that while the idea is still in its early stages, discussions around the concept continue. as airport lands are rezoned and developed.

“One of the key things that we have that is sought after around the world – and the small town of Kamloops has it – is light industrial land, commercial land, with runway access,” Sarai said.

Sarai said she heard the Kelowna tarmac was busy with airplane repairs, so much so that some of those repairs were shared with an aviation company in Vernon.

“We would like to reach out to them and see if we could share some of the work – to take some of the load off them and their runway and also provide jobs here in Kamloops,” Sarai said.

The councilor said the next step would be to show industry groups in Kelowna that Kamloops is interested in a partnership.

Through conversations with Thompson Rivers University, Sarai said he learned it would be expensive to set up a training program for maintaining large, high-end aircraft because instructors are in demand around the world whole and training equipment is expensive.

However, it is possible to target training and maintenance on smaller aircraft types. Sarai said if the city is successful in attracting more of this type of industry, he hopes it could help find an anchor airline for Fulton Field.

“We are in a good phase where we can help local and regional airlines that use propeller aircraft. I think we could do some maintenance and rebuilding here in Kamloops and help wherever we can,” Sarai said.

He said there has been a company in Kamloops for decades that builds high-end engines for major airlines – and the engines are flown or trucked in from around the world.

“This shows that Kamloops is a hot spot for this type of work. And again, I think the key thing that we have is the slope accessibility space that we can offer,” Sarai said.