Flying J is winging its way into Western Canada.

The Ogden, Utah-based highway hospitality and service business firm, No. 45 among the Forbes 500’s largest private companies in America, will open its first Western Canadian Flying J Travel Plaza in the greater Edmonton region early next year, and is also eyeing Calgary.

With 2003 sales exceeding $5.6 billion, including fuel and excise taxes, the company plans to add an additional western location in Chilliwack, B.C., while it also considers other sites across Canada.

The new 1,362-sq.-m. travel plaza, currently under construction, will be located on an eight-hectare site adjacent to the intersection of Broadmoor Boulevard and the Yellowhead Highway in Strathcona County, just east of Edmonton.

Illustration courtesy Dave Hall, Flying J
Flying J’s first Western Canadian travel plaza will be located in Strathcona County, and the company is also eyeing a Calgary site.

The plaza will be one of Flying J’s larger facilities. “We consider this a strong market,” said Vic Arnold, Flying J’s project director for the Strathcona County development.

The Strathcona County travel plaza will include three restaurants: A 180-seat sit-down Country Market Restaurant and Buffet, and two fast-food entries – Pepperoni’s Super Slice Pizza and the Magic Dragon Chinese Eatery.

It will also boast a convenience store, a separate fuelling area for recreational vehicles along with an RV waste-tank disposal system, banks of private phone booths, map and weather information, fax services, and trip- and load-planning services for professional drivers.

Generous-sized restrooms will appeal to weary travellers, as will laundry facilities, nine secure private shower rooms, a television lounge and a gaming area.

Plans for its Calgary travel centre – to be located near Barlow Trail and 114th Avenue S.E. – will be virtually identical to the Edmonton facility.

Now at the permit stage, Arnold said Flying J hopes to get Calgary construction under way later this year or in early 2005. The centre will have a capacity of eight diesel-, two recreational vehicle- and 14 gasoline-fuelling locations – two more gas pumps than the Edmonton operation.

Flying J will also offer incentive loyalty programs, which includes volume discounts on fuel purchases. The company has 1.2 million members in its reward program and says its demand continues to grow.

“We have always had a desire to move into the Canadian market once we fleshed out the market in the United States,” said Arnold. “It makes sense to continue that expansion into Canada and it’s a natural extension of completing our network in the northwestern U.S.”

Arnold anticipates that once the Strathcona County plaza opens, it will create about 75 full-time job equivalents – primarily full-time with some part-time workers – with an annual payroll of about $1 million.

“We’re very pleased Flying J has chosen this spot for its first location in Western Canada. We know it will serve them well,” said Strathcona County Mayor Vern Hartwell. “They’re the leading operator of truckstops in North America.”

Hartwell points to approximately 30 trucking firms that control about 1,000 trucks in the vicinity of the new Strathcona County location as one reason why he believes Flying J picked an excellent entry point to come into Western Canada.

Further, said Hartwell, there’s a relatively large number of passenger vehicles that use either Broadmoor or the Yellowhead or both of those routes.

The existing Road King Travel Centre will be on Flying J’s doorstep, but Hartwell said he doesn’t see a problem, noting that trucking companies continue to play a major role in the transportation of a growing number of goods.

“Almost everything has to be transported by trucks,” said Hartwell.

“We have fleet-fuelling agreements with more than 90,000 carriers in the United States,” added Arnold, “and many of those are expanding their routes into Canadian markets.”

Flying J has about 170 travel plazas throughout North America, primarily in the U.S., with a small number in Ontario and Quebec.

Flying J was founded in 1968 by businessman and avid pilot Jay Call, who was killed last year along with the company’s former vice-president in a small airplane crash in Idaho.

The fully integrated oil company employs more than 12,000 people through its interstate operations, transportation, refining and supply, exploration and production, communications and financial services divisions.

(Laura Severs can be reached at laura@businessedge.ca)