Conair Group Inc. of Abbotsford, British Columbia, Canada, formerly known as Conair Aviation, is a company specializing in retrofitting firefighting aircraft, maintaining customer and company-owned aircraft and aerial firefighting. Conair currently employs over 250 staff and has a fleet of aircraft that are broken down into two categories; air attack (a.k.a. bird dog), and airtankers (a.k.a. waterbombers). Conair specializes in fire management support by providing services and products to forest protection agencies around the world. In 1996 Conair became a Canadian Air Tractor dealer for the AT-802F air tanker.[3] A former Conair Group division; Cascade Aerospace was acquired by the IMP Group of Halifax, Nova Scotia in 2012.
History
The company was started by a consortium led by Les Kerr consisting of: Leslie George "Les" Kerr, K. Barry Marsden, Herman Joseph "Slim" Knights, Ronald "Ron" F. Connelly of Whitehorse, Yukon, and John De Voin (a silent partner). Les Kerr had worked for Skyway Air Services for seventeen years and put together the five man group to take control of the fire control and aerial agricultural interests of Skyway. In the transaction, they took 35 employees and 19 single engine aircraft. This took place after the owner for Skyway (Art Seller), had suffered a stroke and wanted to eliminate some of his workload.
Skyway Air Services was started shortly after the close of WW2.