Buffalo Airways, the famous bush airline of Canada as profiled on Simple Flying and featured in a multi-season TV documentary "NWT Ice Pilots," finally purchased a Boeing 737 freighter. The Boeing 737-300SF purchase was announced on Twitter with an intent to operate out of Edmonton, Alberta & Yellowknife initially, Northwest Territories airports.
Currently undergoing maintenance before acceptance
The Boeing 737-300SF acquisition is undergoing complete checks out of European Aviation Group's Engine Centre based out of Bournemouth Airport in the United Kingdom. A YouTube video posted by Mikey McBryan, the General Manager of Buffalo Airways, shows the 737-300SF with the engines and nose cone removed. Many items on the aircraft are being replaced to make the airplane safely fly like new. Meanwhile, Buffalo Airways is hiring for pilots & co-pilots to be based out of Edmonton. According to the LinkedIn posting, there are 35 applicants as of 21:00/9:00 PM UTC, 26 March 2022.
An upgrade for Buffalo Airways
The Boeing 737-300SF is the first jet for Buffalo Airways. Other aircraft in the Buffalo Airways fleet instead are C-46 Curtis Commandos, Douglas DC-3s, and DC-4s, L188 Electras, Basler BT-67 (an upgraded and modified DC-3), and other old school aircraft used as charter freighters and passenger liners.
Buffalo Airways serves the Canadian Arctic with low temperatures and much snow with many charter services to offer. For instance, Buffalo Airways offers overnight deliveries from Calgary, Red Deer, Edmonton, Hinton, and Jasper to Yellowknife, Yukon, and 2-Day-Service to the Mackenzie Valley in the Canadian North West Territories. This is alongside the Buffalo Air Express subsidiary, which operates trucks to support the air freight business.
Plus, Buffalo Airways provides aerial firefighting - what they call "fire suppression" from their propliners like four Bombardier CL-215s, Lockheed L-188 Electras, 2 Twin Commanders TC690s, 2 King Airs, and if need be, a P-3 Orion. Airborne Geophysical Surveys, Forward-Looking Infrared (FLIR) aerial imagery, and pest control are three other services provided.
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It's also worth noting that Canadian North - another Arctic airline - already has 737 freighters in its fleet.
About the Boeing 737-300SF
The Buffalo Airways acquisition had multiple registrations and served different airlines. The last aircraft registration for the new Buffalo Airways 737-300SF was 2-ESKA. This aircraft was delivered initially out of Boeing's Renton, Washington factory in October 1986 to Piedmont Airlines. The freighter conversion appears to have happened in 2006 for Belgium's TNT Airways before the Spanish freight airline SwiftAir leased the aircraft.
The Boeing 737-300SF is a passenger aircraft converted into a freighter that can carry nine pallets or up to 42,900 pounds of payload up to 2.950 NM/3.395 mi/5,463 km and only operates from paved runways. This is versus the 33,000 lbs the Lockheed Electra - which is the largest aircraft in Buffalo Airways' fleet - can carry.
Overall, this is a growth of Buffalo Airways' freight capacity and ability to haul provisions to Canada's Arctic territories.
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