Max Ward: Airline Pioneer Takes His Place In Canadian Travel Hall Of Fame

This is the fifth and final story highlighting the careers of travel industry pioneers who will be inducted into the Canadian Travel Hall of Fame at the TravelPulse Canada Readers’ Choice Awards in Toronto tomorrow, May 16. Today’s story is about Max Ward, who founded Wardair in the 1950s and turned it into one of Canada’s largest airlines.

“The word ‘legend’ gets thrown around a little too much in some circles, but no one could dispute that Max Ward is a legendary figure in the Canadian travel business,” said John Kirk, Editor in Chief of TravelPulse Canada. “We are thrilled to have Max Ward enshrined as a member of the Canadian Travel Hall of Fame.”

TravelPulse Canada will be live streaming the Readers’ Choice Awards and Hall of Fame induction from the Steam Whistle Brewery in Toronto on our Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/travelpulseCA/). We’ll also have plenty of social media posts that evening on our Twitter (@TravelPulseCA) and Instagram pages (@TravelPulseCA).

Max Ward is now 97. We caught up with his son, Kim, in Toronto and talked to him about his Dad’s incredible success, the remarkable Wardair service, and about his Dad's adventures flying in the rugged Canadian north.

Who was your Dad’s biggest mentor?

Back when Dad was getting started, everybody pretty much helped everybody else. Probably a lot of people were a big help to my Dad in the 1940s and 50s in Yellowknife. It’s a small, northern community and everyone did what they needed to do to survive themselves. But they also were sure to help others. Those were his favourite times; the early days in the north. It was toughest of times physically but probably his most fun and most adventurous time. Perhaps the number one mentor who believed in Dad was Richie Clark at the Industrial Development Bank. When he moved to different branches, he always took the "Ward file" with him. Another early backer and family friend was a fellow named Heagle, who ran a bakery in Edmonton and helped Dad with a $3,000 loan. My mom’s father, Bill Skelton, also was a backer of my Dad’s.

Did your family play a large role in your Dad’s success?

This summer my Mum and Dad will have been married 75 years. He could never have accomplished all the things he did without the backing of my mother (Marjorie) through the years. People forget the spouse of these adventurous people, but I think you have to remember the people who are behind the entrepreneurs. Dad always wanted her to have some knowledge of what was happening in the company. She was always on the board, at least once we became public. She was pretty central to his accomplishments. There’s a song that talks about “the wind beneath my wings.” I think she was the wind beneath his wings. Yes, she’s still around. She’ll be 97 this summer. Dad is 97 now. We’ll have a low-key anniversary party in Edmonton. They’re still there. They’re in the same house. They haven’t moved since they got it in 1967 or so.

What are the biggest obstacles your Dad encountered in his career?

He’d probably say government. Then government. And probably the third thing he’d say would be government. It was just regulations; trying to protect Air Canada and, to some degree, CP.

Do you think it was a tilted playing field?

Very much. Very much. We weren’t allowed to compete really until the very end; the last few years.

Did your Dad think it was important to groom the next leader of Wardair? Were you going to take over the job someday?

There were no promises but that’s what was happening. Do I wish it had happened? As you know, the whole industry got shaken up in the early to mid 90s and everybody, including Air Canada, went bankrupt. So, it (his succession) wasn’t something that would’ve necessarily happened. I don’t think there’s a way we would’ve survived when nobody else did. Would I have wanted to run an airline? It’s not something I’ve really contemplated. If it was a dream of mine, I could have always pursued that. But it wasn’t. I managed the family investments, which was interesting. The airline business, like a lot of businesses, is tough. It’s very capital intensive. Everything that goes on around the world affects your business. I remember in the Gulf War we flew to London. We stayed at a hotel and it was maybe a third full. People weren’t travelling because of the war. There’s politics, economics, military issues. It’s exciting because of that but it’s also tough. No, I’m not in the business now. I stayed until the fall of ’89. When they consolidated the airlines, Canadian and Air Canada, that’s when I left. First Wardair was bought by Canadian, then Canadian was bought by Air Canada. I stayed on with Wardair until the point where they consolidated everything.

What do you think your Dad would be most proud of about his airline career?

I would say it’s how he enabled passengers and people to travel. When you go back to the 1960s when he got into the international side of things, he was flying war brides who had married Canadians and come to Canada. Many of them were going home for the first time since they had moved away from England. He always talks about that. It was so rewarding to send people home who hadn’t been home in years. I think probably it would be just that he was able to treat people really well. When they were on the airplane, he had control. At airports you have to deal with the infrastructure that’s there. There are things you can’t control. The hotels you can’t necessarily control, either. So, I think he would be the most proud of the fact he took care of his passengers when he had them. It’s a different business now. People travel a lot more. Back in the 60s, certainly in the 50s, if somebody flew to England it was printed in the local paper. Now people fly around the world and think absolutely nothing of it.

Are there any particular stories you think your Dad would want to talk about or that you want to pass along?.

I remember when I was in sales and marketing one time. We changed the aircraft from a DC 10 to a 747 on the Toronto-San Juan run at the end of January one year. I thought to myself, “I have 300 seats down and 450 seats back. I think what I’ll do is be clever here and I’ll sell a discounted ticket with hotel rooms for the week before, for 150 people or so, and I’ll move them down through New York or some other way, and then to Puerto Rico. And on the way back they can fly on Wardair.” It was a fairly difficult time and you were trying to figure out everything you could do, so I ended up flying maybe 100 people down to New York on Air Canada and then I blocked seats on Arrow Air out of New York to Puerto Rico. And it didn’t go well. Air Canada, I think, was on time but there was like a three-hour delay on Arrow Air. It was sort of those last-minute sale things and not everyone was aware they weren’t flying Wardair both ways. So, that was a big surprise for them. Arrow Air had a very, very different level of service than Wardair. The week when everyone came back I got a phone call from Dad saying, “Come on down here; what’s going on?” He’d had some complaints from people, so I went down to see him in his office. He told me, “Give everybody their money back. Those who complained; those who didn’t complain. Everybody gets their money back.” So, I had to write a cheque for I don’t know, $100,000 or $150,000 or whatever it was. His lesson was for me was “don’t mess my passengers around. That was a big early lesson for me. No more Arrow Air.” (Laughs.)

For my Dad, I think it would be stories about the north. In the early days, if you were going to overnight somewhere the first thing you had to do was drain all the oil out of the engine and bring the oil into the building you were staying in overnight to keep it warm. You couldn’t start the engine in the 1950s or 40s without doing that when it was minus 30 or minus 40. The navigation was very, very dangerous. Because you didn’t really have any navigation aids. It was all pretty much visual. You had to learn the terrain. You had to be able to recognize it in the cold of winter when it’s cloudy and also in the summer kind of thing. It was a dangerous time. You took risks, but if you weren’t very careful all the time you’d lose your life.