Biography

My 37-year career in the airline industry began in 1966 with Pacific Western Airlines in Vancouver, starting in the Accounting Department. I soon realized that Accounting was ‘not my thing’ and transferred to the Airport Operations Department as a Passenger Agent (aka Traffic Agent back in the day). I worked in Kamloops and Edmonton, subsequently becoming Station Manager at Sandspit and Williams Lake airports.

In 1980 I joined Wardair as an Airport Supervisor in Vancouver. During this time, I worked several seasonal base assignments for Wardair in Florida as well as 2 assignments to the Middle East when Wardair had wet leases with B747 during the Hadj. What amazing experiences those Middle East assignments were! In 1985 I was promoted to Station Manager at Calgary airport.

In 1989 when Canadian purchased Wardair, I became Ramp Manager at Calgary airport and subsequently moved to Contracts and Charters as a Contracts Manager still based in Calgary. I did a lot of work with the DND then since Canadian provided ground-handling services when they operated into non-military airports.

I remained a Contracts Manager initially following Air Canada’s purchase of Canadian, subsequently moving back to Airport Operations as a Customer Service Manager at Calgary airport. I retired from Air Canada in May 2003, having worked for pretty much every major airline in Canada – except CP Air – and largely via acquisitions and take-overs!

With my free time after retiring from Air Canada I started volunteering at the Calgary Foodbank. They subsequently hired me as one of their small group of paid employees and that was the beginning of a very gratifying career that spanned 12 years. Initially my work was varied and included warehouse work sorting and stocking food, driving 5-ton trucks to pick-up and deliver food donations throughout the city and driving the smaller ‘moo-van’ to deliver milk in support of the Foodbank’s Childrens Milk program and ending as operations supervisor. I learned a lot about a side of life I have never had to experience and will alway remember the support and generosity the Foodbank receives and the people it supports every day/year-round. I retired from the Foodbank in January 2016.

I have 1 son and 2 beautiful (and very fast-growing) grandchildren in Washington state. In 2017 my wife and I moved back to BC, to beautiful Vancouver Island where I am now fully retired.

Grant Snider