The McDonnell-Douglas DC-10 is an icon of civil aviation, as one of the very first wide-body
aircraft to enter airline service.
It first flew in 1970, and over 300 DC-10s were built by the time production ended in
the 1980s.
Unfortunately for aviation enthusiasts though, the DC-10 is steadily being retired around
the world.
It flew its final passenger flight in 2014, though it still lives on in a limited role
with a few different operators.
Here in Canada, there were a few passenger airlines who flew DC-10s like Wardair and
Canadian Airlines International, but otherwise, passenger DC-10s haven’t been flown by Canadian
airlines for decades.
However, some might not know that there was actually one Canadian operator who flew the
DC-10 as recently as 2018.
This is the story of the Kelowna Flightcraft DC-10 fleet.
Kelowna Flightcraft, or KF Aerospace as they’re now known, is a Canadian aerospace company
that’s headquartered in Kelowna, British Columbia.
They originally started up as a small aircraft maintenance company in the 1970s, later expanding
into some charter flying.
In 1977, KF began flying overnight cargo flights for Purolator Courier, beginning what KF describes
as their “longest running customer relationship”.
Throughout the 1980s, KF continued to expand their fleet, adding two 727-100s to be used
for flights with Purolator.
The 727 fleet steadily grew throughout the 1990s, with KF becoming Purolator’s dedicated
air cargo carrier in 1994.
Eventually, in 2008, KF secured a major contract with Canada Post, Canada’s primary postal
operator, worth over $100 million.
Up to that point, Canada Post had been using belly cargo capacity on passenger aircraft
to fly mail across the country.
At the time, Canada Post owned 92% of Purolator, and Canada Post felt they would be able to
benefit from using their own network instead.
For the lucrative Canada Post contract, KF looked at widebody aircraft like the L-1011
and 747 before deciding on the DC-10.
With lower capital costs compared to other newer aircraft, its 160,000 pound payload
capability, and KF’s prior experiences with maintaining older aircraft, the DC-10 was
deemed the right choice.
The catch was that KF had just a few months to buy the aircraft, certify them, train people,
and get this widebody operation going.
The first two DC-10-30Fs, which KF registered as Charlie Golf Kilo Foxtrot Alpha and Kilo
Foxtrot Bravo, were first built for British Caledonian, and delivered to KF in September
of 2008.
They started operations later tha t month, flying mail and cargo for Canada Post across
the country from Hamilton to Winnipeg, Calgary, Vancouver, and back to Hamilton.
Soon enough, KF added two more DC-10s to the fleet - Kilo Foxtrot Delta and Kilo Foxtrot
Tango.
These two planes started their life with Lufthansa in 1975, and were registered in Canada in
2010 and 2012, respectively.
Like the first two DC-10s, these were soon flying mail across Canada, with a 99% dispatch
reliability, according to KF.
Unfortunately for KF though, after 6 years of flying the DC-10s for them, Canada Post
and Purolator decided not to renew their contract with KF in 2014, awarding their domestic air
cargo contract to competitor Cargojet instead.
Reportedly, Canada Post wanted lower costs, higher reliability, and more flexibility,
as e-commerce began to rise and volumes of mail dropped in the early 2010s.
With that blow to KF, it seemed as though the DC-10s’ days were numbered, and the
contract was officially handed over to Cargojet on April 1st of 2015.
Later on that spring, the first two DC-10s were removed from the Canadian Register, and
sadly scrapped in Hamilton in August 2015 and June 2016, respectively.
However, Kelowna Flightcraft wasn’t quite done with cargo flying just yet.
In early 2015, they announced plans to rebrand as KF Aerospace, launching a new network of
cargo flights from Toronto to Europe, and from Vancouver to Alaska.
This included a move to Toronto’s Pearson Airport with the two remaining DC-10s and
two 727s, where they would fly between Toronto and Brussels, and Toronto and Moncton.
The plan was to capitalize on markets like seafood and pharmaceuticals, flying one of
each aircraft type while keeping the other as a spare.
KF also had plans to expand these cargo flights to Western Canada and Alaska, with flights
to Vancouver, Calgary, and Anchorage.
KF also did a few international charter flights throughout this period, including some destinations
in Russia, Argentina, Spain, Germany, and even Iraq.
Those Western routes though didn’t exactly materialize, as the transatlantic cargo market
proved to be a tough one for KF.
Less than a year later in March 2016, KF ended the cargo operation out of Toronto, saying
that it wasn’t economically viable, and that there was too much belly freight capacity
in the North Atlantic market that they were serving.
Both DC-10s were ferried back to Hamilton while KF looked for other options for them,
including potentially selling the aircraft.
Despite this though, the DC-10s got yet another lifeline!
Just a month later, in April of 2016, it was announced that KF had secured a contract with
Solar Cargo of Venezuela.
The DC-10s would fly from Miami to South American destinations, flying flowers and fresh produce.
Initially, they were operating three flights a week between Miami and Bogota, Colombia,
and another three flights a week from Miami to Caracas, Venezuela and onward to Lima,
Peru.
The DC-10s continued to fly these routes out of Miami until they were finally retired from
KF in 2018.
As Canada’s very last DC-10s, Kilo Foxtrot Delta and Kilo Foxtrot Tango were officially
removed from the Canadian Register on September 14th, 2018, and exported to the United States.
As of 2020, both aircraft are stored at Kansas City International Airport in Missouri, and
with them now being over 46 years old, it seems doubtful that they’ll fly again.
KF Aerospace though is still very much around today, as Canada’s largest Maintenance,
Repair, and Overhaul company.
In 2014, with the drawdown of their cargo flying ahead, they began to refocus their
efforts on their maintenance operations in Kelowna and Hamilton, which have steadily
grown since.
KF’s largest customer at the moment is WestJet, and KF supports their Dash 8 and 737 fleets,
along with the 737s at Swoop.
In addition to WestJet, KF has also provided maintenance for airlines like Sunwing, Air
North, Air Transat, and even some international customers like Icelandair and Condor.
Although it’s easy to boil down KF’s history to just their cargo flying work, I’d be
doing them a disservice if I didn’t at least mention their other ventures along the way,
like their Convair stretch program, Greyhound Air, their Canadian Forces training program
in Manitoba, and many others.
Also, KF is actually the type certificate holder for the Convair 240 family of aircraft,
which includes the CV340, 440, 580, and more.
Even as their remaining trijets were retired, KF Aerospace still kept flying some feeder
flights, and to this day they continue to operate some Convairs for Purolator throughout
British Columbia.
Though it’s not nearly the same size of operation as it once was, it is a testament
to KF’s ability to diversify their business.
And on a personal note, the KF DC-10s were always the favourite part of young Alex’s
plane spotting trips to the Calgary airport, and I’m really glad I saw them as many times
as I did.
In the end, while the DC-10s may have been old, they did do their job and truly helped
KF Aerospace spread their wings beyond Canada’s airspace.
Thank you so much for watching, and to my good friend Brandon for the Convair footage,
and I will see you all next time.