Hawkair is losing its general manager and one of its founding partners.
Rod Hayward is leaving in July to teach aviation business administration at the University of the Fraser Valley in Abbotsford.
“They actually started talking to me in the summer of 2011,” said Hayward.
“So I taught one course this last semester and we talked again and I talked it over with my family and we decided to take this opportunity.”
Hayward is from Ladner and first came to Terrace in 1989 to fly for Trans Provincial Airlines which went out of business in the early part of the next decade.
Hayward and three other partners gained ownership of one of the company’s distinctive bulb-nose Bristol Freighters and began a freight operation in 1994.
That evolved into a passenger service in 2000 with an initial Terrace to Vancouver connection.
Rapid expansion followed, resulting in the company subsequently seeking bankruptcy protection in 2005 so it could reorganize.
The company was then sold to an Alberta company, Bar XH Air, the following year.
Ownership then returned to the northwest through the parent company of Central Mountain Airlines.
Hayward said Hawkair has experienced some of its best years recently as demand for passenger and charter service grew. “I’m glad to be leaving on an upswing,” he said.
Hayward also received his mechanic’s certification and has a Master’s of Business Administration from the University of Northern British Columbia.