The C.P.R. is going into air transport in a big way in the Vancouver area.
Having bought out three Canadian air line companies, the Canadian Pacific Railway is embarking on a program which it is estimated will run to $12 million in the acquisition of further companies and development of services across the Dominion.
The company has already bought out Yukon Southern Air Transport, operating from Vancouver and Edmonton into the Yukon; Ginger Coote Airways, running from Vancouver to Zeballos and Port Alice; Mackenzie Air Service, serving the Mackenzie River Basin out of Edmonton, and is believed to be negotiating with Wings Limited, in Ontario, Arrow Airways in Manitoba, and Starrett Airways.
This by no means completes the list because it is stated in reliable aviation circles that the day will come when all air transportation in Canada will be in the hands of two companies - the C.P.R. and TCA.
The C.P.R. is a majority shareholder in Canadian Airways, and it has been through this Dominion-wide concern that most of the deals have been worked out. With the death of James A. Richardson, one of Canada's leading grain men, who founded Canadian Airways, all his stock passed into the hands of his wife, who, it is believed has sold out to C.P.R., giving that company control.
AIR, SEA TRANSPORT
As a result of the acquisition of Ginger Coote Airways, that company's offices in Vancouver will be closed in the near future and merged with Canadian Airways. The Gibson brothers, well known in Vancouver Island West Coast logging, who bought control of the company some time ago from R. L. "Ginger" Coote, will be stepping out of the company, while "Ginger," who still holds shares in the company, will receive a settlement.
As was exclusively announced in The Vancouver Sun Saturday, the C.P.R., through Yukon Southern Air Transport, will run from Vancouver to the Yukon via Prince George and the Peace River. Under the new set-up, the C.P.R. will control air as well as sea transport out of Vancouver.
Passengers will have the choice of flying to Whitehorse or Dawson in a day’s travel and returning by steamer from Skagway. But the big prize of the future is realized to be the possibility of development of airways through the Yukon and Alaska and on to Siberia, with Shanghai and Moscow on the Vancouver air map.
So intent is the C.P.R. on developing the run to the Orient aspart of an all-red route around the world after the war, as announced previously in The Sun, that the company has already arranged for first call on many of the pilots now flying bombers across the Atlantic to England. These men would be top-notchers for such a service after the war.
TWO SUBSIDIARIES
The other day the C.P.R. celebrated its fortieth anniversary of marine service on the Pacific. The coastal steamship business of British Columbia has long been an important and well-paying investment and, in fact, is one of the most successful of the subsidiary enterprises of the company.
One marine observer pointed out today that the Canadian Pacific railway lines might be merged sometime with the Canadian National, but the C.P.R. would still have in this province two vast independent enterprises which would show tremendous growth in the future, the Consolidated Smelter at Trail and the coastal steamship fleet.
There has been more than rumor behind a story that for some years now the C.P.R. would gladly buy out the Canadian National steamers Prince George and Prince Rupert and thus would come into control of all the principal north coast lines. The C.P.R. is already a shareholder in the Union Steamships Ltd.
It is believed that the C.P.R. deal has been the reason for delay by Ottawa in making public the findings of the Transport Commission which sat in Vancouver last summer studying duplication of air services. The report will be useful but aviation people here believe any changes which might be suggested would be those which would be made by the C.P.R. in the normal course of business.
For the time being at least, most companies absorbed by the C.P.R. will retain their original names and management.
