Creditors of Hawkair will be meeting in Terrace Dec. 12 for the latest financial information following the company being declared bankrupt Nov. 18.
The company had itself voluntarily placed into bankruptcy, said Derek Lai from Crowe MacKay and Company, the licensed insolvency trustee firm appointed to dispose of its assets.
“What we do is protect the interests of all the creditors,” said Lai Tuesday.
The bankruptcy put approximately 40 people out of work although a few have been called in to assess the company’s inventory in preparation for disposing of what can be sold.
In addition to any equipment and aircraft parts, Hawkair had two Dash 8-100 aircraft.
Once a major factor in the local and regional aviation community with more than 100 employees at its Terrace headquarters at the Northwest Regional Airport as well as at offices and bases in Smithers, Prince Rupert, Vancouver and northeastern B.C., Hawkair had gradually been pulling out of those communities and consolidating in Terrace.
Beginning in January, it stopped operating on its own and began supplying aircraft and crew to Central Mountain Airlines which is owned by the same holding company that owns Hawkair.
And in September, Central Mountain announced it was cancelling its Terrace to Vancouver service that had been using a Hawkair aircraft.
Speaking from the Central Mountain head office in Smithers, Doug McRea called the bankruptcy a sad occasion.
“Hawkair certainly has been a longtime supporter of the community and it will certainly be missed,” he said of its providing of tickets for various charitable organizations and purposes.
McRea said the state of the regional economy worked against Hawkair’s existence.
The bankruptcy means Central Mountain no longer can use Hawkair’s aircraft and so it has been shifting its own fleet around, McRea added.
The bankruptcy does not affect Central Mountain or the parent holding company because Hawkair was a limited company in its own right.
