Outfitters dismayed by closure of northern Sask. charter flight service

With Osprey Wings grounding its planes and no clear successor to take over the charter flight company, outfitters in northern Saskatchewan are worried about what the future holds.

The news hit Wayne Galloway harder than a bad medical diagnosis.

“That’s just how empty my world has been since I got the news,” Galloway said. “Just like a death.”

Galloway has been a part-time outfitter with Paull River Wilderness Camp since 1982 but moved to live full-time at the camp in 2016. His relationship with the Thompson family and Osprey Wings goes back 40 years.

Paull River Wilderness Camp. (Wayne Galloway/Submitted)

Living remotely, Galloway and his partner depend on the family-run charter flight company for things like the supplies he needs to make it through the winter until spring. He doesn’t know where those supplies will come from now.

He also needs supplies for his outfitting business. Galloway said their camp isn’t a large operation but it’s his living.

“I don’t know how you can take any kind of a booking right now when you don’t know, No. 1, where they’re going to be flying from and, No. 2, what it’s going to be costing or who they’re going to be with,” he said.

“I just don’t know what the future is, I really don’t,” Galloway continued. “It’s that serious for me.”

He said there’s one other charter flight company in La Ronge, but it only operates two planes and Osprey Wings took a significant portion of that company’s business when Osprey Wings opened. He said that’s understandable, given how well Osprey owners Gary and Bonnie Thompson ran their business.

“I don’t think anyone can duplicate it,” Galloway said.

The outfitter is sympathetic to why the Thompsons have decided to close and doesn’t fault them at all; Galloway couldn’t say enough good things about Osprey Wings.

“I understand all the reasons they’re doing it,” he said. “They’ve worked right to the max over there.”

Paull River Wilderness Camp. (Wayne Galloway/Submitted)

But the abrupt halt to business hits him especially hard. If he’d known Osprey would be grounding its planes at the end of the fall, Galloway said he would’ve placed an early order for his winter supplies.

Or he would’ve hoped the family could have held on and continued operating just a little bit longer, at least until they found someone to buy and take over their business. If another charter flight can deliver his supplies, Galloway expects he’ll have to pay three times what Osprey would have charged him.

After hearing from Gary Thompson that Osprey was closing, Galloway said he gave Thompson a call. Both men were emotional.

“Tears have been shed over this. I’m shedding mine right now,” Galloway said, calling the whole situation a “tragedy.”

With so many unknowns, Galloway anticipates he’s not the only outfitter who will be struggling because of Osprey Wings closing its doors.

Harvey Kroll, the chair of the Saskatchewan Commission of Professional Outfitters and owner operator of Hatchet Lake Lodge, said the closure came as a shock to them.

“We as outfitters don’t always realize how good we had it,” he said. “Gary Thompson probably, in my view, ran one of the best float plane divisions probably in North America.”

Kroll said Thompson’s business emphasized having the best equipment, the best operators and superior customer service.

Kroll’s biggest hope is that someone will step in to fill the gap left by Osprey’s closure by providing the same level of service the Thompsons did.

“All sorts of rumours” currently are flying about how that will happen, but Kroll said he isn’t concerned because he’s sure someone will step in to fill the gap.

“Outfitters, we’re a pretty resilient bunch,” Kroll said, noting other “hiccups” like the loss of flights to Saskatchewan by United Airlines and Delta Airlines as well as the COVID-19 pandemic.

“This is just another little hiccup that we have to deal with,” Kroll said.

Galloway sent a message to Premier Scott Moe’s office to alert him to the significant need now facing remote northern areas without Osprey Wings in operation. He has received word back that the issue will be brought to Moe’s attention and it was forwarded to Highways Minister Jeremy Cockrill.