2008 Leadership Award
Barry Lapointe, President Kelowna Flightcraft Group of Companies
Barry Lapointe was born and raised in Vancouver, British Columbia, and graduated with honours from BCIT's Aircraft Mechanic Engineer course in 1966 as class president. Upon completing his commercial pilot's license in 1967, Barry gained invaluable experiences by working his way through various small air-charter companies. In 1968, he was rewarded for his hard work by becoming the Chief Engineer at Air west Airlines, which would later become Air BC.
Barry displayed his entrepreneurial spirit and began the dream to own and operate his own company. Barry moved to the Okanagan Valley in 1969 and founded Kelowna Flightcraft in 1970. He identified that there was a niche market opportunity in the Okanagan for an aircraft maintenance company. The company initially performed inspection checks, maintenance and other various tasks on assorted small aircraft throughout the Okanagan Valley. Over the years this expanded to courier and charter services. Kelowna Flightcraft is now the third largest Airline Company in Canada, and offers its clients a true, one-stop shop. Kelowna Flightcraft can now fly, maintain, modify, engineer, paint and train both crew and mechanics. This includes mechanical, avionics and engines.
Barry has had a life-long interest in aviation and currently holds a Ministry of Transportation (MOT) Airline Transport Rated pilots license with over 14000 hours of flying. He also currently holds a MOT Aircraft Maintenance Engineers licensee in M1 and M2 categories and is highly respected for his skills as a pilot, maintenance engineer and entrepreneur.
In 1977, Kelowna Flightcraft started one of the first dedicated courier air services across Canada and now owns the largest fleet of aircraft operating in the Canadian Air Freight market. Kelowna Flightcraft flies all of Canada Post air freight on its fleet of DC-10 Aircraft nightly, as well as all of Purolator Courier cargo on its fleet on Boeing 727 Aircraft across Canada.
Kelowna Flightcraft's subsidiary, Allied Wings Division, located near Winnipeg, Manitoba, operates the Canadian Forces Contracted Flying Training and Support program and in 2005 was awarded a 20 year contract with the Government of Canada, to train all primary aircraft and helicopter for the Canadian Military, as well for other free world countries.
Kelowna Flightcraft operates a fleet of over 40 Aircraft with a staff of over 1000 dedicated personnel.