KF History

Barry Lapointe was born and raised in Vancouver, British Columbia, where he attended the British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT). Barry graduated with honors from the Aircraft Mechanic Engineer course, and in 1966 as class president. Upon completing his commercial pilot’s license in 1967, Barry gained invaluable experiences by working his way through various small air-charter companies. In 1968, he was rewarded for his hard work by becoming the Chief Engineer at Air West Airlines, which would later become Air BC.

Barry moved to the Okanagan Valley in 1969 and together with Jim Rogers founded Kelowna Flightcraft in 1970. They identified that there was a niche market opportunity in the Okanagan for an aircraft maintenance company. Their company initially performed inspection checks, maintenance and other various tasks on assorted small aircraft throughout the Okanagan from the back of a truck. Over the years this expanded to courier and charter services.

While there was significant financial risk with the new venture into a global market like aviation, Barry is proud to acknowledge a recorded profit annually since the inception in 1969. KFL is the third largest Airline Company in Canada, and offers its clients a true, one-stop shop. KFL can fly, maintain, modify, engineer, paint and train both crew and mechanics. This includes mechanical, avionics, engines, stretching Convairs, adding cargo doors, and military upgrade programs (T-33, MI-17)

At a young age, Barry demonstrated his leadership and management skills with an instinctive ability to lead and inspire others. It’s a success story of a single AME, with confident optimism, which has now grown to over 850 employees, a fleet of aircraft and numerous operations across Canada. These include 2 main bases in Kelowna and Hamilton, as well as 13 satellite bases that stretch across Canada from Vancouver, BC to St. John’s, NFLD. In addition, KFL purchases, upgrades and sells aircraft worldwide

KFL is the exclusive air cargo carrier for Purolator Courier (PCL). KFL owns the night sky with a fleet of Boeing 727’s and Convair 580’s, providing the capability of moving approximately 500,000 lbs. of freight nightly. In addition, KFL provides passenger charters for tour operators as well as worldwide executive jet service

Barry has had a life-long interest in aviation and currently holds a Ministry of Transportation (MOT) Airline Transport Rated pilots license with over 1400 hours of flying. He also currently holds an MOT Aircraft Maintenance Engineers licensee in M1 and M2 categories and is highly respected for his skills as a pilot, maintenance engineer and entrepreneur. In recognition of his outstanding achievements in the field of Aerospace Engineering, Barry has been awarded an Honorary Doctorate degree from the BCIT, Entrepreneur of the year Pacific Region in 1998, the Aerospace Training Innovator award from Aerospace Industry Association of British Columbia (AIABC) in 2002, and PAMEA of the year award in 2005.  In 1977, Barry and Jim started one of the first dedicated courier air services across Canada and now Kelowna Flightcraft owns the largest fleet of aircraft operating in the Canadian Air Freight market. In 1995 Flightcraft provided aircraft, crews and logistics to support Greyhound Airlines.

Barry has a keen interest in Canadian Air Transportation and is a strong supporter of many groups. He was once Chairman and now secretary on the Airline Transport Association of Canada (ATAC) board and is also a member of the Partnership BC (PBC) and PCL Board of Directors.