Chartright Air Group to Open New Hangar at YKF by Summer 2027, Expands Services Across Canada and U.S.
Why It MattersRegional airports with room to expand are becoming preferred sites for hangar and MRO capacity as operators chase infrastructure that larger, congested hubs cannot easily supply.
What happened
Chartright Air Group, headquartered at Toronto's Pearson International Airport (YYZ), is adding a new hangar at Region of Waterloo International Airport (YKF), expected to be operational by summer 2027. The hangar door height will be capable of accommodating a Boeing 737, and the facility is intended to serve tenant companies and aircraft management customers. "There is a dire need for aviation infrastructure in Canada, and we are anticipating the requirements of our customers," said Constantine Tsokas, Senior Vice President, Infrastructure, at Chartright.
Chartright operates a fleet of more than 40 fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft across seven airport locations, including two FBOs, and holds close to 200,000 square feet under lease at YYZ, described as one of the largest footprints at the airport behind Air Canada and WestJet. The company has 40 years of experience in aircraft management, charter, acquisitions and sales. Wings magazine this year recognised Chartright's FBO at YKF, expanded three years ago, as Ontario's number-one FBO and ranked it among the top three in Canada, while its FBO at Lake Simcoe Regional Airport (YLS) placed fourth among Ontario FBOs in the same rankings. Both FBOs are members of World Fuel's Air Elite Network, a group of more than 80 FBOs globally, and Tsokas is the first Canadian to serve on Air Elite's international board of directors.
Current tenants at YKF include Bombardier and De Havilland Aircraft of Canada Limited. De Havilland, which acquired avionics company Mid-Canada Mod Center, is performing major upgrades to older water bombers at the Chartright facility. Bombardier conducts pre-flight checks, engine runs and test flights on every Global aircraft it manufactures at YKF before each aircraft receives its Certificate of Airworthiness and is flown to Bombardier's Montreal facility for completion. Tsokas noted that the first two Bombardier Global 8000 aircraft ever delivered went to Chartright customers.
Chartright recently launched ChartrightGO, a mobile maintenance support service for Canadian-registered aircraft operating in the United States. Its technicians hold both Transport Canada and FAA licences, and the service, based in Florida, primarily covers the U.S. Eastern Seaboard and supports Challenger, Citation, Global and Learjet models. Chartright describes itself as the first Canadian operator to offer such a dedicated mobile maintenance service in the U.S. The company also offers a subscription-based Jet Club membership program, positioned between charter and full aircraft ownership, allowing members to access multiple aircraft types for an annual fee without the depreciation associated with fractional ownership.
Industry impact & what to watch
This expansion sits alongside a broader push by Chartright to add capacity in places where manufacturers and maintenance providers already cluster: a YKF hangar built to handle a Boeing 737-sized door, an OEM-adjacent tenant base that already includes Bombardier and De Havilland, and a cross-border maintenance service aimed at Canadian-registered jets operating in the U.S. Together these moves point to an operator building infrastructure around where its aircraft and customers actually are, rather than concentrating everything at its home base.
For aircraft management and charter operators, hangar space, FBO rankings and mobile maintenance reach function as competitive assets in their own right, not just support functions. A top-ranked FBO can draw transient traffic and tenant relationships that feed the management and charter business, while a service like ChartrightGO extends a Canadian operator's maintenance footprint into U.S. territory without requiring a new fixed base there.
What happens next depends on whether the YKF hangar attracts additional tenant or management customers once it opens in summer 2027, and whether ChartrightGO's Florida-based coverage expands beyond the Eastern Seaboard. Bombardier's continuing use of YKF for Global aircraft testing, including the delivery of the first two Global 8000 units to Chartright customers, will also signal how tightly the airport's manufacturing and MRO activity stays linked to Chartright's own expansion plans.
