Air North cuts costs, travel time from territories to Ottawa

Travellers check-in to Air North at the Ottawa airport for its direct service to Yellowknife, which continues on to Whitehorse. (PHOTO BY JANE GEORGE)

Crews service Air North’s 737-500 during a brief stop-over in Yellowknife on its scheduled route between Ottawa and Whitehorse. (PHOTO BY JANE GEORGE)

YELLOWKNIFE — Here’s a question for you — would you like to pay between $500 and $1,300 and spend up to 10 hours or more on a flight between Ottawa and Yellowknife or would you prefer to pay as little as $380 and spend just under five hours to make the same journey?

For Air North passengers on a recent direct flight from Ottawa to Yellowknife, the answer is clear — the four-hour-40-minute scheduled service between the two cities, started by the Yukon-based airline in February 2014, is a winner.

The direct flight manages to cover a distance of 3,087 kilometres for less than half the cost of a ticket between Ottawa and Iqaluit, which is actually a shorter distance by 1,000 km.

Those waiting for check-in at the Ottawa airport on a recent September morning included people of all ages, the Chinese ambassador to Canada and his entourage, many pets and a pair of travel agents from New York on their first trip north, who said they were impressed by how little time Air North takes to travel to the western Arctic.

Two federal civil servants heading back to Yellowknife — who declined to give their names because they’re forbidden to speak on-the-record to reporters without permission — said they’re “tired of the milk-run” that takes travellers through the airports of Edmonton, Calgary or Iqaluit.

“And they feed you,” one of the women said of Air North’s hot meals.

Air North also offers free check-in for two bags up to a total weight of 100 pounds or 45 kilos.

The Boeing 737-500 flight north leaves Ottawa on Mondays and Fridays at 11:50 a.m., arriving in Yellowknife at 2:30 p.m., before heading on to Whitehorse. The Yellowknife-Ottawa flights run Thursdays and Sundays from Whitehorse, to depart Yellowknife at 5:55 p.m. and land in Ottawa shortly after midnight.

But here’s the problem — while capacity on the Air North 737 reached up to 78 per cent during the summer, on Sept. 11, the flight north was only a little over a third full.

If you want to know why the flight isn’t full, you can read a forthright message to travellers from Air North president Joe Sparling, published in its inflight magazine.

In his message, Sparling says nine in 10 government travellers still go to the bigger airlines such as Air Canada and Westjet.

And, he says he counts among the “biggest impediments to our continued success” the fact that many of these travellers choose, or are encouraged, to buy tickets on these large carriers.

That’s even if the cost runs up to 30 per cent higher, Sparling told Nunatsiaq News. He said it surprised Air North not to get more support from government travellers “because it’s a no-brainer if you can save time and money.”

In the Northwest Territories, Air North isn’t even considered to be an Aboriginal-owned airline, although it has an Aboriginal partner, the Vuntut Development Corp.

As for Nunavut travel, Air North hasn’t seen a lot from the territorial government, Sparling said.

That is likely, other sources say, because the Nunavut government has an agreement under which its employees are obliged to travel on Canadian North, no matter what the cost.

However, many travellers from western Nunavut who must travel through Yellowknife to head east — and especially those who don’t quality for beneficiary-related discounts from Canadian North and First Air — are discovering the service.

During its first year, the new flight run paid the bills, Sparling said, but the airline is seeing improvement: overall, the company is projecting an operating profit of $1.5 million this year.

Air North’s website says it’s the largest airline in the Yukon, putting $20 million into the territory’s economy every year, and flying from its Whitehorse home base to major gateways, such as Vancouver, Calgary and Edmonton in addition to Yellowknife and Ottawa.