Canadian North to do trial High Arctic route next April

Canadian North plans to run a trial flight service to Arctic Bay in April 2012, which Quttiktuq MLA Ron Elliott hopes will become permanent and bring a second airline to the High Arctic community. (PHOTO BY TIMOTHY KAL)

(updated at 1:30 p.m.)

People in Nunavut’s High Arctic may soon be able to travel more easily between their region’s communities.

That’s because Canadian North has committed to run a trial flight service to the High Arctic in 2012 that will allow travellers to fly between other Baffin communities — without going all the way to Iqaluit first.

Under the proposed new route, Canadian North will operate a flight between Arctic Bay, Igloolik and Pond Inlet, that will take off from Iqaluit.

Quttiktuq MLA Ron Elliott said Dec. 13 that the trial flight service would start operation in April 2012, three years after MLAs and mayors began a push for a new route and service from a second airline to some Baffin communities.

“There are a lot of people who have relatives in [these] communities,” Elliott told Nunatsiaq News. “At present, for anyone in all three of the communities, they have to first fly to Iqaluit and then travel to their desired destination. This will shorten the travel and hopefully save money on airfare travelling to destinations they do not want to travel to.”

Right now, the High Arctic communities of Arctic Bay and Resolute Bay are served by First Air while Grise Fiord is served by Kenn Borek Air, based out of Resolute Bay.

The new route is designed so that travellers from Resolute Bay and Grise Fiord can make a connection via First Air from Resolute Bay to Arctic Bay to board the Canadian North flight.

For Arctic Bay, the new Canadian North service will give people there a choice of airlines, Elliott said, which many feel will encourage competition and lower airfares.

High Arctic mayors and residents, as well as the MLAs for Igloolik and Pond Inlet, have wanted to see for the kind of service Canadian North is proposing for some time, Elliott said.

“Keep in mind that this will be a test to see if there is interest and if the flight schedule will work,” he said. “But it is a first step, and I am excited and happy to be able to pass on this information to everyone.”

Following meetings between the airline and regional MLAs last October, Canadian North first talked about starting up the trial service during the 2011 Christmas holidays.

But there wasn’t enough time to market the service before the holidays, so airline officials have now committed a trial run during the 2012 Easter holidays.

For the period between April 6 and 14, Canadian North will operate two flights in each direction, said Lorraine Bonner, the airline’s vice-president of scheduled service.

“The schedule was specifically designed to operate over the Easter holidays with the option of staying in each community for up to 8 days,” Bonner said. “This trial schedule will help Canadian North determine the viability of a service between these three communities.”

Passengers can book seats on the trial flight starting Dec. 23.