One of the things we’re most excited about for the upcoming AirCargo Conference in 2025 is the keynote address from Mikey McBryan. He’s a wildly interesting, larger than life character who helps run the “TV famous” Buffalo Airways, an airline based in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Canada, established in 1970. They operate charter passenger, charter cargo, firefighting, and fuel services, out of their main base at Yellowknife Airport as well as Hay River/Merlyn Carter and Red Deer Regional Airports.
What’s Hidden in the Hangar? Buffalo Airways Tour
The McBryan Family and Crew
Of course, you’re likely to know Mikey, the McBryan family and their crew from the wildly popular Ice Pilots NWT History Channel TV series. Since 1982, they’ve operated the largest courier service in the Northwest Territories. For the past five decades, the crew has successfully run a fleet of vintage, some would even say ancient, radial engined aircraft like perennial favorite, the Curtiss C-46 servicing over 400 communities in and around the frozen Arctic Circle.
Although they’ve been the poster children for keeping old birds in the air, in 2023, they launched the first dedicated direct cargo route between Edmonton and Yellowknife on a new Boeing 737-300SF.
The Buffalo Airways team also just acquired a two-seat training version, as well as a simulator, of the Air Tractor AT-802, or Fire Boss, an aircraft used to tackle wildfires all around the world, and they’re aiming to train world-class firefighting pilots from their home base in Yellowknife.
Who is Mikey McBryan?
Although Mikey McBryan was basically raised in the Buffalo Airways hangar, living and breathing air cargo, he isn’t a pilot himself. Mikey went to business school, and now he helps handle the operations for Buffalo Airways. He’s also responsible for the fun and popular Buffalo Airwear apparel company and the Plane Savers series where they restore vintage abandoned aircraft like a WW2 veteran DC-3 and Fokker Dr.1 Triplane (think the Red Baron).
Saving a WW1 Plane from a Wreck – RED BARON – Plane Savers S2-E3
Buffalo Airways Goes the Extra Mile
Mikey and his family face all the usual challenges familiar to everyone in the air cargo industry, but as you can imagine, everything is amplified times a hundred by the age of their planes, the absolute brutality of the weather, extreme geographic isolation, and the real challenge of getting pilots. This brings a team like Buffalo Airways together into a big airfield family, and they even managed to take up the slack to get childrens’ letters to Santa and the North Pole in time for Christmas. Basically, these guys do everything – despite the harshest conditions on earth.
Mikey McBryan is a super interesting character – entrepreneur, filmmaker, TV star and more – and he has all sorts of stories to tell. You can meet him at AirCargo 2025 where he’ll be delivering the keynote address.
SOURCES:
https://cabinradio.ca/211219/news/yellowknife/buffalo-seeks-next-generation-of-pilots-to-fight-wildfires/
