
It was definitely one of the fastest ways to get around Monday’s prolonged closure of the Bennett Bridge.
West Kelowna-based Valhalla Helicopters gave a lift to a dozen people who needed to get from the Westside to Kelowna in a hurry.
Marketing manager Claire Savege says the phone calls started around 8 a.m. after it became clear the bridge would likely be closed for several hours.
“People said, hey, I need to get across the bridge. What can we do?”
Savege says that’s when Valhalla staff jumped into action. The company offered to ferry people to Kelowna International Airport, with choppers taking off every 20 minutes. Each shuttle trip could hold up to four passengers at a cost of $680, so the price per person was $170.
“We had a few people that had some non-refundable flights and nothing was going to get in the way of their vacation. And then, of course, there were some business meetings that couldn’t be missed. So, we managed to move 12 people.”
Savege says nothing surprises her anymore in the helicopter industry.
“We get asked all sorts of requests for transportation.
“You wake up on a Monday and think, OK, I’ve got this and this meeting and then it’s like, no stop! We’re changing direction here and this is what we’re going to do.”
Valhalla was also on standby to help Interior Health on Monday.
“They were aware that we were able to transport people. If nurses needed to get in, if medical supplies or blood samples needed to get in, we were on standby just in case things escalated and they needed to move things. Because it’s time-sensitive,” said Savege.
She says it took a lot of communication to set up the shuttle flights but everything ran “pretty seamlessly”.