It was a day of celebration at Abbotsford’s Fast Air on Thursday (May 11).
Not only was it the official groundbreaking ceremony for the charter service’s planned new facility, but it was also a fundraiser hosted at their current facility to help support Surrey’s Mackie’s Place Youth Social House.
The Awesome Fast Travel Show fundraiser showcased a number of cars, jets, helicopters and travel trailers for guests to observe and experience. Some of the highlighted transportation devices included: Cessna Citation CJ3, Bell 206 Jet Ranger, King Air C90, Airstream Travel Trailer, 1988 Porsche 944 Turbo and many more.
At @yxxairport for the Fast Air Aviation Showcase. Raffle fundraiser for charity as the company also celebrated groundbreaking on a new 20,000 square foot facility across from this new facility pic.twitter.com/vMFJuZWsvq
— Ben Lypka (@BenLypka) May 11, 2023
Guests could purchase raffle tickets to support Mackie’s Place and win prizes such as a scenic helicopter flight to Gambier Island, a one-year membership to Mackie’s Pie Club, a two-night stay at Oak Bay Beach hotel and more.
Dan Rutherford, the business development manager for Fast Air, stated that over $25,000 was raised for Mackie’s Place on Thursday. He said it was a great event and has been pleased at how Fast Air has been welcomed into Abbotsford.
“The event was supported so much by the community and both business and civic leaders,” he said. “It’s so greatly appreciated for a company that is new to Abbotsford.”
Rutherford said about 200 people checked out the event, which occurred at Fast Air’s current hangar facility, which is located at 1235 Townline Rd. The current hangar facility began its service on Dec. 12 and Rutherford said it momentum is growing locally for the company and the service.
“For this season, which is a slower season, it’s been fine,” he said, of the first quarter. “It’s given us time to really establish ourselves. There’s a lot of support that goes behind operating an airplane – maintenance, fuel and so on. But this time has helped us grow awareness. We’re finding more and more clients are contacting us either to do a charter flight or to see if we can manage an airplane for them – and we do both of those.”
The corporate and private jet services company banked on Abbotsford because of the quality and location of the Abbotsford International Airport and also the passion the community has.
“We believe there is a strong entrepreneurial spirit in the community and what we do really supports entrepreneurial business,” Rutherford said. “We’re not an airline, but we really are a tool for business and businesses that are wanting to grow will use business aircraft.”
He explained that many businesses have stated that YVR has become very congested and pricing to work out of that airport has gone up substantially in recent years. It’s also more difficult to find landing spots compared to Abbotsford.
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“Abbotsford is a great airspace, fantastic airport and customs,” he said. “We can go anywhere in North America from here. So businesses use us for time savings to either multiple sites or to difficult to get to sites.”
Rutherford said that the new 20,000-square-foot business aviation facility, which was what the groundbreaking ceremony was for, is located directly across from their current facility and will be completed in November.
The new facility will include business-class hangar space for business jets, offices and a lobby facility.
For more information on Fast Air, visit flyfastair.com.
