Tofino Air is a small Canadian airline offering floatplane service from

Tofino Tofino ( ) is a town of approximately 2,516 residents on the west coast of Vancouver Island in the Canadian province of British Columbia. The District of Tofino is located at the western terminus of Highway 4 on the tip of the Esowista Peninsu ...

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

.Tofino Air
/ref> It offers scheduled services, scenic tours, and specialized charters.

History

In the early 1990s, the owner of Tofino Air, and a lifelong resident of British Columbia's Sunshine Coast, started a small regional airline called Midcoast Air, to better assure safety and dependability for himself and his co-workers as they travelled from the logging and fishing camps on BC's west coast, to their homes on the Sunshine Coast. In 1998, Midcoast Air re-located to Sechelt. In January 2001, Tofino Air purchased Pacific Spirit Air based in Silva Bay on

Gabriola Island Gabriola Island is one of the Gulf Islands in the Strait of Georgia in British Columbia (BC), Canada. It is about east of Nanaimo on Vancouver Island, to which it is linked by a 20-minute ferry service. It has a land area of about and a res ...

. After purchasing Pacific Spirit Air, Tofino Air increased its daily routes by adding in scheduled flights from

to Vancouver International Water Airport. The airline also continued offering daily scheduled flights between

Departure Bay Departure Bay is a bay in central Nanaimo, British Columbia, on the east coast of Vancouver Island. The surrounding neighbourhood is also referred to as "Departure Bay" —once a settlement of its own, it was amalgamated into the City of Nan ...

in Nanaimo and Sechelt/Porpoise Bay. In April 2011, Tofino Air moved from its location in Departure Bay to the Nanaimo Harbour Water Aerodrome where it began to offer scheduled flights between Nanaimo and

Vancouver Harbour Flight Centre Vancouver Harbour Flight Centre, Vancouver Harbour Water Aerodrome or Vancouver Coal Harbour Seaplane Base , is a registered aerodrome located at Coal Harbour in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The flight centre is within walking distance of ...

. In late May 2011, Tofino Air was one of the first airlines to move into the new Vancouver Harbour Flight Centre, All flights from Vancouver Harbour Flight Centre have been cancelled and charter flights are conducted at the Vancouver International Water Airport. In December 2014, Tofino Air started a new subsidiary airline called Gulf Island Seaplanes to service the Gabriola Island Silva Bay to Vancouver International Water Airport using

de Havilland Canada DHC-2 Beaver The de Havilland Canada DHC-2 Beaver is a single-engined high-wing propeller-driven short takeoff and landing (STOL) aircraft developed and manufactured by de Havilland Canada. It has been primarily operated as a bush plane and has been use ...

aircraft from Tofino Air. In August 2015, Tofino Air dropped service from Nanaimo Harbour Water Aerodrome to Sechelt/Porpoise Bay and a new subsidiary airline called Sunshine Coast AirSunshine Coast Air
/ref> took over all service using

aircraft from Tofino Air, while Tofino Air now only offers scenic tours, and specialized charters from

and scheduled flights to Hot Springs Cove and

Ahousaht Ahousaht, also spelled Ahousat ( or )), is the principal settlement on Flores Island, in British Columbia, Canada. Accessible only by water or air, Ahousaht is a small community predominantly composed of First Nations people from the Nuu-chah-nul ...

from

Fleet

The Tofino Air website does not list the

de Havilland Canada DHC-3 Otter The de Havilland Canada DHC-3 Otter is a single-engined, high-wing, propeller-driven, short take-off and landing (STOL) aircraft developed by de Havilland Canada. It was conceived to be capable of performing the same roles as the earlier and h ...

,.About Us
/ref> The Tofino Air fleet consists of the following aircraft (as of September 2019): Tofino Air Cessna 180

Transport Canada Transport Canada (french: Transports Canada) is the department within the Government of Canada responsible for developing regulations, policies and services of road, rail, marine and air transportation in Canada. It is part of the Transporta ...

lists two more de Havilland Beavers, both with cancelled registration certificates.

References

External links

Tofino Air
official site {{Airlines of Canada Regional airlines of British Columbia Seaplane operators

History

Fleet

See also

References

External links