Russ Baker changed the name
of Central B.C. Airways to Pacific Western Airlines (PWA) in
1953. At the same time, he started to fly a scheduled service
from Vancouver to Kitimat.
In 1955, Baker’s PWA grew again when it acquired Queen
Charlotte Airlines, allowing the company to provide a new air
service to the Queen Charlotte Islands.
Baker had a major opportunity to expand when he signed a
sub-contract with Associated Airways located in Edmonton to
carry freight into the Western Arctic to
Distant Early
Warning (DEW) Line sites.
By December of 1955, PWA took over the ailing Associated
Airways, obtaining licences that were needed to provide service
to the Central Canada Section of the DEW Line. PWA was very
successful in providing regular scheduled flights into these
Arctic sites. In 1957, PWA acquired air service to Saskatchewan
and Alberta.
At the time of his death in Vancouver on 15 November 1958,
Baker had laid careful future plans for scheduled flights to
many outlaying communities, including regular airbus service
between Edmonton and Calgary, and daily flights to the Polar Sea
region.
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