When talking “transit,” we can cover a multitude of modes: bus, streetcar, ferry to name but a few. The BC Electric Railway at one time also operated taxicabs, rental cars and carried freight onboard a fleet of trucks. But did you know the company even operated its own aircraft? If you didn’t, you are not alone! I didn’t until I was researching a completely different topic – on the same newspaper page from 1946 was an interesting item about a BC Electric airline.
Jerry Vernon, the President of the Vancouver Chapter, Canadian Aviation Historical Society, graciously provided much of the material here when I sent him a query about this.
For most people, information about the BC Electric airline would not be easy to spot: there would be no “BC Electric” designation. Rather it was called BNP Airways. The initials stood for the three companies that jointly owned & operated it: “B” was for BC Electric, “N” came from Northern Construction Company, while “P” was for Powell River Company.
So how did this airline come about? As the post World War 2 construction boom began, the BC Electric Railway Company resumed construction of its Bridge River Powerhouse project. This had been suspended in 1931 due to the economic downtown caused by the Great Depression. Civil engineering work was contracted to Northern Construction, a company well versed in heavy civil work. (Two of its most visible projects were the original Second Narrows Bridge in 1925, and the CPR Burrard Inlet Tunnel built in 1932.) While the electric power produced was largely consumed by customers in the Lower Mainland, a big customer was a pulp and paper mill in Powell River. The mill was owned by the Powell River Company which later was incorporated into MacMillan Bloedel Ltd. Common to all three companies was a need to access remote work sites; rather than each begin their own air services, just after the Second World War, they formed BNP Airways Ltd. In 1948.
The genesis for the airline though had begun a few years earlier in 1945, when a friend of Bill Boeing, Thomas Hamilton constructed the Malibu Lodge on Princess Louisa Inlet. To ferry in guests he formed Malibu SeaAero operating a Grumman Goose amphibious aircraft bought from the Royal Canadian Air Force. BC Electric and Northern Construction naturally had a relationship, but Powell River Co became involved because it was willing to charter a Grumman Goose that it owned to the two companies. But to do that, Powell River used Malibu’s charter licence. So the relationship between four companies with two aircraft was convoluted and intricate, and often aircraft were not available when one of the companies needed them. The three companies were unhappy with the arrangement. The answer was to buy out Malibu, and form BNP Airways. It operated out of one of the two early 1930s “arch” hangars at Vancouver Airport on Sea Island. One of these had earlier been the original Trans Canada Airlines (now Air Canada) hangar. There was a concrete ramp to allow the aircraft to access the Fraser River.
The Grumman aircraft were quite luxurious, having executive interiors with leather seats and custom amenities. The airline operated for over a decade, ceasing operations in the late 1950s. Over time, the BC charter airline business had matured; other companies such as Pacific Western Airlines and BC Air Lines began to offer custom air transportation service. Also, Powell River Company had merged with MacMillan Bloedel. That company already had its own airline operation. The era of dam construction by BC Electric was drawing to a close, to be superseded by local generating plants on Burrard Inlet and at Port Mann. The airline’s reason for existence was becoming less and less, and although BC Hydro when formed in 1962 inherited the BC Electric’s share of the airline, in 1964 BNP Airways was formally wound up. BC Hydro though did own one Goose and one Cessna on its own accord.
But the question about the newspaper clipping that started this trip down the rabbit hole still remains: in 1946, the BC Electric applied for a licence to operate aircraft in areas where it now serves with bus or trolley. “We applied to Ottawa for flying rights in the Fraser Valley and on intercity runs against the day when flying local hops is sufficiently advanced to become practical” explained Executive Vice President A. E. Grauer. (Vancouver Province, April 10th 1946.)
A US Navy Grumman Goose G21 aircraft similar to those used by BNP Airways. USN – Naval Air Station Jacksonville photo CNIC 042527, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3433506
