Forty-five years ago, when we were all much younger, driving from Eagle Plains, Yukon to Inuvik, NT was quite adventurous, in a way even more than flying back from the Beaufort Sea to Vancouver where our journey through western Canada had started. On the way back by air, we did fly through Yellowknife, which had not been reached during our surface roaming through all kinds of Canadian roads, some clearly existing only in summer. The aircraft took off and landed in different airports on the way to Edmonton: it was a big plane for a small airport, landing in Yellowknife in 1980. Putting these introductory words together brought back incredible memories and superb landscapes, an experience like no other. Where did we put all those photos?
     Considering I was a passenger, not cargo, it is impossible that I met Joe McBryan on that plane, or . . . maybe he was the captain there, even after launching Buffalo Airways in 1970? Possible or not, FT spoke to his son Mikey a few days ago and here is what we talked about. The conversation was about McBryan speaking at the Air Cargo Conference in Dallas, Texas.
     When Mikey McBryan steps up to the microphone and delivers a keynote for Air Cargo Conference on March 3rd, the very approachable, folksy Manager of Buffalo Airways from Hay River and Yellowknife, Canada will be sharing a truly great story of not only what he does, but also how he and a determined group of people achieve something completely different from the rest of the world of air cargo.

     Mikey of the North is heart and soul of Buffalo Airways, where his father Joe McBryan and his sister and brother and all the McBryans report to work every day: their service and legend continues to grow. Buffalo Airways Cargo operates round the clock during these shortened winter days in the Northern climes, when -10° might feel like “spring break”. Buffalo Airways, we learn, is situated at a place frozen solid at -30° most of the time. The other day, en route to work, Mikey found himself watching an actual buffalo plodding through the deep snow keeping pace with his car as he gazed out the window.
     The Buffalo flights are unique: the only way that supplies can get to several tiny settlements scattered throughout the remote Northern Territory of Canada region. Right now Buffalo, which lifts cargo everywhere in Canada – and this includes fighting fires via its aerial tankers in summer – is also stepping off to new horizons while its airplanes are a true blast from the past.
     Watching the air ships come in and push back from Yellowknife is a real treat as a C-46 (one with a tell-tale Lufthansa Crane seen faintly on the tube) double bubble, early pressurized tube, veteran of the type, provide daily Buffalo service.      Once upon a time those aircraft served to move war supplies aboard the China India Burma Airlift. Now, in a last stand service anywhere, the C-46 announces itself with a throaty roar as it moves consignments of everything from refrigerators to cooking oil, paper towels and potato chips to places that would not be easily serviced by road or rail.
     Buffalo also moves cargo aboard its fleet of DC3s, DC4s and Electra-Lockheed 1-88s and some others. But high adventure and keeping alive an era with needed critical service in the 21st century aside, now Buffalo has taken the plunge and has also gone pure jet with a B737 freighter it began operating three years ago. “We join a very small group of companies (in modern times) that can say they’ve flown DC-3s and B737s,” Mikey McBryan said. Mikey-driven Buffalo acquired the 737-300SF in 2022, in part because existing freight connections into the NWT were challenged keeping up with next-day demand. Cargo carried by Buffalo mostly arrives in the Northwest Territories by truck. Consignments are then loaded onto the airline’s DC-3 and C-46 aircraft, for onward travel to the territory’s smaller communities.
     It is extraordinary that the acquisition of a single aircraft would garner continued and widespread attention from the media, but Buffalo Airways is no ordinary carrier. In 2022, Buffalo said its B737 would replace much of the airline’s reliance on trucks to get freight into its network: “The DC-3s, C-46s are still in use to cover the final journeys into smaller NWT communities, not the least because more modern aircraft like the 737 are not equipped to handle gravel airstrips.”
     As air cargo conference attendees next week will bask in the sun at Dallas, Buffalo Airways with characteristic determination and dedicationto lift on through temperatures that right now can hit -40°C.
     Buffalo has now spent several winters with a cargo jet when we caught up with Mikey. Mikey McBryan is the perfect combination of smart and dedicated, up in the morning, out on the job. With his Dad Joe, brother Rod and other members of the family and an extended family of people, this cast of characters have garnered an international following due the television series: Ice Pilots. Today there are maybe 100 episodes of Ice Pilots playing on places like: The Weather Channel, Ice Pilots YouTube, on video and also available by special order and on social media.      “The Buffalo Boeing,” Mikey said “has been doing very well considering both market fluctuations and the change this great cargo lifter brings to our culture here.
     “We are lucky to have some northern locations with paved runways,” Mikey smiled. “Reality is that our B737 is the apex predator in terms of cost per pound! We have been able to stay in the black despite crazy weather, ensuing issues with barge deliveries and delayed or shortened ice road access across our service area. Our Boeing offers value for money and service reliability, lessening the monetary impact for shippers during continued seasons of unpredictable weather. Bottom line, as all of us in air cargo know, the bigger the plane the less over all flying per pound . . . and of course, the cost per pound goes down. People that have followed Buffalo have seen our intrepid DC3s, C46s and other great aircraft. In most cases likely, they care about airplanes, but at the end of the day for air cargo the customer focus is about price and service.
      “The Boeing,” Mikey confides, “flies high, wide and handsome into new horizons for Buffalo Air Cargo.” We wonder what if anything surprised Mikey moving cargo at jet speed? “A lot of people told me that Boeing doesn’t care about the smaller operators,” Mikey said. “That could not be farther from the truth. Everyone I have interacted with at Boeing has been very helpful and very quick. So when I see in the news that they have issues, I know it is a problem they take very seriously and they will be back at top very soon.”
     We asked Mikey if Buffalo has looked at a QC variant of the B737, as once served in Hawaii? The answer was direct: “I personally don’t get excited by hauling passengers in a 737. The extra cabin safety procedures and requirements is not something I want to invest time and effort in. We want to haul freight and focus on doing that as best as we can,” Mikey said.
     We also asked: “Mikey, how Joe, a true devotee of reciprocating piston engine aircraft, feels now that Buffalo is routinely flying cargo in a jet?” Mikey’s Dad (aviation pioneer and legend of Canadian aviation Joe McBryan) mentioned him as point man early on in the Boeing experience: “But I am sure he will not be trading in his DC-3 PPC anytime soon . . . or ever,” Mikey smiled.
     We wonder, as he approaches a couple days deep in the heat of Texas, what Mikey will share with conferees at Air Cargo Conference in Dallas aside from the weather? Will there be some time for some Q&A?
     Many questions come to mind, Mikey keeps his hands-on approach and goes straight to the point: “If there is time, for sure I would love to answer any questions on stage. But also I will be there in person for the whole event, so anyone can come up to me at any point and we can talk.
     “My main concern is for people to be entertained and to get some laughs. My motto has always been that people will most always never remember what you said, only how you made them feel. I just hope they like me and Buffalo Cargo.”
     We then asked whether there is possible expansion of Buffalo activities in the future? Mikey responds, saying, “Buffalo turns 55 years and we have grown almost every year . . . just slowly like a 4-foot arctic tree that is 55 years old.”
     Our final question, what motivates him most: the joy of winning or the fear of losing, elicits this response, “To answer this directly, it is the joy of winning. There is no better feeling than a plan (or plane) coming together. Just seeing the Buffalo Boeing in real life really brings me hope that we can do anything we put our minds to. Losing is temporary, winning is forever.
     “We will all end up in the scrap yard in the end, so do as much as you can while you can,” Mikey of the North gently advises. Perhaps the continuous confrontation with harsher climate and obstacles makes this gentleman so straightforward, yet fascinating as he actually is. Come to Dallas and you will see!
Geoffrey Arend/Marco Sorgetti