about us

There is a story behind us… and we love to tell it.

our story

Saltspring Air roots started in 1985 when owner St.Clair McColl moved to the Island. At the time he was employed as a pilot with Harbour Air. Ironically he was looking for an inexpensive place to settle down with his wife and raise their 3 boys. After 18 years of commuting off the Island to various flying jobs he decided he wanted to work where he lived. He wanted to give something back to the community.
   In June of 2003 he started Saltspring Air, a seaplane service based in the Islands for the Islanders. McColl started the service with his own 4 seater Cessna 185. With 12,000 hours of experience he was able to provide the safe and efficient service to the Island population without the positioning costs. He quickly turned on the Islanders to traveling with a local air service giving them personal service. His customers were quickly spreading the word of the intimate and magical experience of seeing the West Coast from the bird’s eye view of a seaplane.
   Initially Saltspring Air catered to the charter market showcasing the fast and affordable way to reach the otherwise inaccessible regions of B.C.’s coast including remote alpine lakes, mountain glaciers, secluded picnic beaches and isolated fishing and logging camps.
   It was soon apparent that there was a need to expand to a larger aircraft as well as surround himself with a dedicated team of dispatchers, pilots, aircraft engineers, dock crew, and marketing team. In May 2004 he leased a 6 passenger DeHavilland Beaver aka “the work horse of the Canadian North”.
   In August of 2004 he teamed up with Lisa Cherneff, a BCIT Business Graduate and together they started to sell the idea of an Island based scheduled seaplane service. Their priority was safety, dependability and fun. The motto “If it’s not safe we’re not doing it, if it’s not fun were not interested”. McColl soon found that the demand was outstripping the supply. Mortgaging everything he owned, McColl purchased another Beaver to increase his fleet size.
   Today Saltspring Air has a fleet of planes, 4 pilots, 3 dispatchers, and a team of engineers and dock crew to keep everything running smoothly. In addition to the charter flights McColl started with, Saltspring Air now offers 3 direct flights a day between Saltspring and downtown Vancouver and the Vancouver Airport, and provides a scheduled service out of Maple Bay and the other Gulf Islands.