About Wings

Wings

Overview

Wings is a Canadian business-to-business magazine serving the aviation and aerospace industry across Canada. Published by Annex Business Media, it appears in print six times a year and is supported by a frequently updated website, e-newsletters, digital editions and a weekly video report. Annex describes Wings as "Canada's national aviation and aerospace magazine" and promotes it as the country's leading fixed-wing source of news, insight and business intelligence — a positioning claim made by the publisher rather than an independently audited ranking. The magazine's coverage spans the breadth of Canadian aviation, from airlines and corporate flight departments to military procurement, aircraft manufacturing, maintenance operations, flight training and grassroots general aviation.

Wings is the flagship title of Annex Business Media's aviation group, which also includes Helicopters magazine and UAV Canada, a brand devoted to unmanned aircraft systems. Together the group produces annual reference resources such as the MRO Directory, the Aerial Firefighting Directory and the Careers in Aviation Guide, and stages industry events including the Careers in Aviation Expo and the Canadian Wildfire Conference. The title carries ISSN 0701-1369 and is published in English from Annex's operations in Ontario.

For readers, Wings functions as both a trade journal and a daily news service. Its website posts Canadian and international aviation news every day — stories dated through mid-October 2026 were visible on the homepage at the time of review, covering subjects from airport policy in Ottawa and military drone programs to spaceport development in Nova Scotia — while the print and digital editions carry longer features, analysis and industry data.

History

Wings was launched in 1959, making it one of Canada's longest-running aviation publications. For much of its life it was published in Calgary, Alberta, by the Corvus Publishing Group. Trade press reports from 2001 recorded that Annex Publishing & Printing, then based in Delhi, Ontario, had acquired Corvus Publishing Group, bringing both Wings and its sister title Helicopters into the Annex fold. At the time of that acquisition, the trade report described Wings as a six-times-a-year magazine with a controlled circulation of about 11,000 aircraft manufacturing, aviation industry and government professionals — a figure that reflects the magazine's distribution at that time rather than its current reach.

Under Annex, Wings evolved from a print-only trade magazine into a multi-platform brand. The print edition settled into a bimonthly rhythm of six issues per year, while the brand added digital editions, e-newsletters, special themed editorial weeks and the "Aviation This Week" video report. The magazine also became the anchor of a broader aviation portfolio: Annex grouped Wings with Helicopters and UAV Canada, launched the annual Careers in Aviation Guide and directory products for the maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) and aerial firefighting sectors, and built live events around the brands.

The Careers in Aviation Expo, produced by the aviation group, brings airlines, flight schools, manufacturers and employers together with students and job seekers; recent editions have been held in a Porter Airlines hangar at Toronto Pearson International Airport, and coverage in April 2026 reported a sold-out crowd. The Canadian Wildfire Conference, co-hosted by Wings, Helicopters and Annex's Fire Fighting in Canada brand, has grown into a two-day event: its seventh annual edition was scheduled for October 28–29, 2026, at the KF Centre for Excellence in Kelowna, British Columbia, following a 2025 edition that drew more than 300 attendees and 57 exhibitors, according to Wings' own reporting.

Programming and Content

As a magazine, Wings' "programming" is its editorial mix across print, digital and video. Annex summarises the coverage segments as corporate aviation, military, aerospace, commercial aviation, MRO and completions, safety and training, and grassroots development. In practice, the website organises news and features by topic and by province and territory, allowing readers to follow developments in their region as well as their sector.

Typical content includes airline and airport business news; defence and procurement reporting, such as coverage of the Canadian Armed Forces' efforts to expand drone capability; manufacturer and MRO profiles; regulatory and policy analysis involving Transport Canada and NAV CANADA; flight training and career development material; and safety reporting drawn from Transportation Safety Board investigations. The annual Careers in Aviation Guide and the site's Careers in Aviation directory address education and training pathways for the fixed-wing, rotary-wing and unmanned sectors, reflecting the industry's ongoing pilot and technician shortages.

Beyond the magazine itself, the brand produces the weekly video report "Aviation This Week," regular webinars, and the two annual events described above. The Canadian Wildfire Conference has become a significant part of the brand's identity, connecting air operators, fire chiefs, technology suppliers and government agencies around wildfire suppression — a topic that intersects directly with the helicopter and fixed-wing airtanker fleets Wings covers editorially.

Audience and Reach

Wings is written for professionals who work in, supply or regulate Canadian aviation: airline and charter executives, corporate flight department staff, aircraft and component manufacturers, MRO providers, airport operators, flight training organisations, military and government personnel, and general aviation business owners. Its distribution model has historically been controlled circulation to qualified industry readers, supplemented by single-copy and digital readership.

The most specific historical figure available comes from trade press coverage of the 2001 Corvus acquisition, which put Wings' controlled circulation at approximately 11,000 industry and government professionals at that time. That number is more than two decades old and is presented here only as historical context. Annex does not publish a current audited circulation figure for the magazine on its public portfolio pages, and no independently verified current reach figure is claimed in this profile. The publisher does describe Wings as Canada's No. 1 fixed-wing source for aviation news and business intelligence; that is the publisher's own marketing characterisation, dating from its brand materials, and should be read as such.

The brand's practical reach today extends well beyond the print run: the website publishes daily news consumed across the industry, the Careers in Aviation Expo and Canadian Wildfire Conference draw national audiences in person, and the annual directories serve as reference tools for operators and suppliers throughout the year.

Digital Presence

The magazine's digital home is wingsmagazine.com, a WordPress-based site that functions as a daily aviation news service for Canada. The homepage mixes staff features with wire and partner reporting, organised into news and features streams, with archive categories by province — from British Columbia to the Atlantic provinces and the territories — and by training program categories supporting the Careers in Aviation directory. Digital editions of the print magazine are offered online, and the brand distributes e-newsletters and themed digital content weeks.

Video is a notable component: "Aviation This Week" provides a weekly video summary of industry developments. The aviation group also maintains a presence on social and video platforms under the Wings brand, and its events are promoted through Annex's central events site. Sister brands Helicopters (helicoptersmagazine.com) and UAV Canada share the same publishing platform and cross-promote content, directories and events with Wings.

Ownership and Organisation

Wings is owned and published by Annex Business Media, headquartered at 105 Donly Drive South in Simcoe, Ontario, with additional offices in the Toronto area. Annex describes itself as Canada's largest privately held business media company, with more than 60 B2B brands spanning sectors from aviation and fire services to agriculture, manufacturing and food processing. The company grew out of Annex Publishing & Printing of Delhi, Ontario, and expanded substantially through acquisitions, including the 2001 purchase of Calgary's Corvus Publishing Group that brought Wings and Helicopters into the portfolio, and a series of later deals that built it into one of the country's dominant trade publishers.

In 2024, Annex underwent an employee-management buyout, transitioning to an employee-management partnership structure in which employees share in ownership — a change documented in trade coverage of the company and reflected across its brands. Editorial and commercial leadership for Wings sits within Annex's aviation group: Annex's portfolio page lists Martin McAnulty as group publisher for the brand, and Annex event listings identify Jon Robinson as the editorial lead for both Wings and Helicopters. Scott Jamieson has served as the company's chief executive in recent years.

Contact and Availability

Wings is published six times a year in print and digital editions, with subscriptions and single-issue access managed through Annex Business Media. The magazine's website is wingsmagazine.com, where readers can read daily news, browse provincial and topic archives, access digital editions, consult the Careers in Aviation directory and register for events and webinars.

Publisher contact details are centralised through Annex Business Media, P.O. Box 530, 105 Donly Drive South, Simcoe, Ontario N3Y 4N5, Canada; telephone 519-428-3471, with customer service available toll-free at 1-800-668-2374. Advertising and media kit requests for Wings are handled through the Annex Business Media website, which lists the brand's group publisher and provides a media kit request channel. Editorial enquiries are directed to the aviation group's editorial team via the contact options on wingsmagazine.com and the Annex corporate site.