A fleet audit – the de Havilland Canada DHC-8

The recent purchase of this program, in its entirety, by Viking Air, by way of Longview Aviation, provides an excellent time to do an audit to see what Viking has got its hands on. Our audit shows there were 1,260 of the four models ordered. These models are the DHC-8-100, -200, -300 and -400. The chart shows the current fleet. The de Havilland Canada name in aerospace is legendary. It is the name behind such remarkable aircraft as the Beaver and Twin Otter. Known for being robust, these aircraft have an excellent reputation in the Canadian north for operating under the most brutal conditions. The commercial airliners, as shown in the chart, reflect some of that robustness. Of the fleet, over 76% are still active across the globe. What has Viking got its hands on? Up to now, Viking has been selling turbo upgrades to Beavers, and of course, selling its upgraded Twin Otter. Twin Otter customers tend to be commercial airlines and governments. Both have an expectation about aircraft performance. Commercial customers expect good economics and reliability. Government customers are all about performance and reliability - economics is of less concern. The next chart shows the breakdown of the active DHC-8 fleet. Conveniently, 97% of the operators fall into the primary area of focus at Viking. What can these customers expect from Viking? Based on the company's history with other de Havilland programs, these expectations should be to expect the Q-400 as we know it to be tweaked. An early candidate for tweaking is switching the engine from the PW150A to the PW150C. This newer engine offers ~5% better fuel burn. We also expect Viking to offer a flexible cabin solution - with various choices in seating and cargo. This means an aircraft with the kinds of capabilities its airline and government customers can relate to. A more flexible combi can only make the Q400 more attractive. The recent sales Bombardier has made in Africa underscore the Q400's already robust capabilities. Making the aircraft more payload flexible is an attractive proposition. The idea of flexibility is important in other respects. Take a look at Flying Colours and what they have done with the Q400. Viking's last purchase from Bombardier was its CL-415 "Water Bomber. In typical Viking fashion, they are tweaking the CL-415. We are highly confident there will be a fire-fighting Q400 coming from one the world's premier fire-fighting aircraft OEMs. While on the idea of special mission aircraft, take a look at the DHC-8 government and quasi-government customers. Clearly, a bigger market than most people realize. This segment is as large as the biggest airline customer. The bottom of the list is the most interesting. In the pie chart, we show 92 aircraft used by governments, but add quasi-government users and the total rises to 105. The extra aircraft include those that are currently parked, but clearly can be activated if needed. Another example of the flexibility of the Q400 airframe can be seen here with the project being led by L-3. In summary, Viking has got its hands on a very capable airframe. Whereas Bombardier struggled with the Q400, given its high production costs, Viking might be able to make a better go of it. The Q400 is a very capable and interesting airframe, with several uses outside the commercial airline world.

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