De Havilland preparing to begin aerospace campus construction this fall

By John Watson Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

De Havilland of Canada is just steps away from beginning the first phase of construction for their aerospace campus, set to be established in Wheatland County. 

Neil Sweeney, vice president of corporate affairs for De Havilland, said equipment has begun to be moved into place in preparation for the end of the harvest season. 

“If people have been out that way on 264, they will see that we are starting to assemble large pieces of equipment that will be moving dirt in earnest once the canola is off the field this fall, and we are starting to move in some of the equipment that will go into our buildings,” he said. “We anticipate real construction to begin in spring of 2026, with the first buildings open in the spring of 2028.”

The announcement of the aerospace campus was originally made in Calgary in September 2022 at the current facility, where drafted plans were revealed to the public for the first time. 

Since then, De Havilland has hosted public information sessions and has worked with both the province and the county to acquire all of their necessary permits, as well as to adjust legal land use. 

“We really are looking at De Havilland Field being our home for the next hundred years and we are being deliberate in how we future-proof the campus for the growth that we expect in the next number of years,” said Sweeney. “We believe that this is going to kickstart new aerospace opportunities in western Canada, not only for southern Alberta, but really our supply chain extends across the country. We have partners as far away as Newfoundland; we have parts manufacturing in a number of provinces, including British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario. Our supply chain really does go coast to coast.”

De Havilland will be looking to hire students straight out of their post-secondary education, including from such programs as from SAIT in order to occupy the campus and support their team once the campus is operational. 

Recruitment has not begun yet for construction jobs at the site. Sweeney said he anticipates the majority of the jobs, once available, will be occupied by Wheatland County, Strathmore and Calgary-area residents. 

Phase 1 of the project, as it is being referred, will include the runway, distribution and logistics, parts manufacturing, aero structures manufacturing, and aircraft assembly buildings. 

De Havilland is anticipating between 500 and 750 jobs per year to be created through the needs of their campus construction.

“Our manufacturing footprint is quite solid now; this is really about replacing and enhancing our ability to produce not only parts of aircraft … it will really just enable us to ramp up production even quicker,” said Sweeney.