As a child, Tracy Medve would go flying with her father in a two-seat Cessna 150 airplane over the countryside near her home in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan. “He was an insurance salesman, but all he loved was flying,” she recalls.
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After graduating from law school in 1981, Medve got a job she wasn’t too fond of in Regina. So, she called a friend of her father, Albert Ethier, who owned a small air service in Saskatoon at the time called Norcanair. Medve begged him for a job. She started out at Norcanair knowing nothing about aviation, but she helped with legal work, tackling labour negotiations and aircraft transactions.
Medve rose through the ranks of the industry, moving to different leadership roles, including with Canadian North Airlines, and co-founding Calgary-based aerospace consulting firm C.T. AeroProjects. But it was in a 2012 meeting with Barry Lapointe, the founder of KF Aerospace, that she charted her course to B.C. Medve came on board as president in May 2013, then became CEO in 2021.
Under Medve’s leadership, KF Aerospace has seen significant growth. Medve led the expansion of the company’s engineering and maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) services when its cross-country courier services for Purolator and Canada Post ended in 2015. KF Aerospace still provides courier services in B.C. but has become the largest MRO and engineering company in Canada, with more than 1,200 employees across Kelowna, Vancouver, Hamilton, Ottawa and Portage la Prairie, Manitoba.
KF has also provided military pilot training since 2005. SkyAlyne, a joint venture between KF and CAE, was recently awarded an $11.2-billion, 25-year contract from the Canadian government for military pilot and crew training.
But the company isn’t just diverse in its operations: as of late 2025, women represent 25 percent of KF Aerospace’s workforce. “There’s still a lot of work to be done in the trades,” Medve says, adding that training women as pilots, aircraft maintainers and aerospace engineers is key, given that aviation plays a critical role in supporting the Canadian economy. “While the numbers are growing, it’s still nowhere near 50 percent—and it should be, because there’s a shortage of those skills.”
In 2025, Medve was also inducted into Canada’s Aviation Hall of Fame, the only woman out of four inductees that year. “I’m past the 65-retirement-age idea, so I guess I’ll stick around for a while longer, while it continues to be interesting,” she says.
What is the last book you read?
A murder mystery.
What is a small daily joy of yours?
Playing the piano.
What is one misconception about your industry?
“That the airlines have control over all the elements, so when your flight leaves or arrives late, it’s the airlines’ fault.”
