British Columbia-headquartered Conair Group has purchased 11 Dash 8 Q400 aircraft, which will be converted to aerial firefighters. The purchase is the group's most significant investment to date.

The global aerial firefighting industry typically deploys airtankers converted from used aircraft from either military or passenger service. Conair says that the current state of the industry is largely an inventory of older model aircraft that are reaching their life expectancy. “The industry, as a whole, needs to move forward and invest in newer model aircraft to not only keep attacking wildfires, but also address the need for long term reliability, innovative technology to improve pilot safety and ‘greener’ equipment, to reduce environmental impact,” shares director of business development Jeff Berry. “We believe the Q400 airtanker answers these needs and goes beyond. Our first Q400AT just completed its first successful fire season in Queensland, Australia at the end of December. We now have two Dash 8 Q400ATs ready to operate, with one contracted to Alaska for the 2021 fire season, and the other to British Columbia. 2021 will be the Q400AT's first fire season in North America.”

Conair plans to convert the purchased Dash 8 Q400s to airtankers to eventually replace all Conair legacy L188 and CV580s, which operate in North America, over a period of two to three years. The legacy airtanker aircraft will then be retired. The newly purchased Dash 8 Q400 aircraft, based in Europe, will be delivered to Conair starting this month. “We will start conversion immediately, releasing the first in the spring, to be used as a spare, and the second in the summer, planned for operations in the US,” Berry continues.