Calm Air joins the Jet Age this month

Passengers in Rankin Inlet disembark from Calm Air’s new 32-seat Dornier 328 jet aircraft Sept. 1 after its inaugural flight from Winnipeg, which took only two hour and two minutes. It’s now in use five days a week, from Monday to Friday, offering hot meals, a lavatory, in-flight DVD players and shorter Winnipeg-Rankin flight times. (PHOTO COURTESY OF CALM AIR)

Calm Air is pressing fast-forward on its Rankin Inlet-Winnipeg route by introducing jet service five days per week.

The flights, which run Monday to Friday, use a 32-passenger Dornier 328 jet equipped with a washroom and include a hot meal.

The company boasts the addition of jet service will drastically reduce the flight times between their Nunavut destinations and Winnipeg.

The flight takes two and a half hours. A return trip leaving Rankin Inlet Sept. 21 and returning from Winnipeg Sept. 28 costs $1,688.40. A similar flight on First Air takes two hours and 18 minutes and costs $1,606.50.

Current Calm Air turboprop flights between Rankin Inlet and Winnipeg can take nearly five hours and include stops in Arviat and Churchill, MB.

In a news release, Calm Air said the route is currently served by a leased plane, but the airline is looking to purchase its own jet.