First Air adds extra flight to Nunavut-NWT route

Summit Air’s RJ85 will fly an Iqaluit-Rankin Inlet-Yellowknife flight operated on Sundays starting next month. (PHOTO COURTESY OF SUMMIT AIR)

First Air will add a new trans-territorial flight spanning Nunavut and the Northwest Territories next month, following the end of its codeshare agreement with Canadian North.

Starting May 21, the airline is adding a fourth weekly flight on its Iqaluit-Rankin Inlet-Yellowknife route, First Air said in an April 24 release. That flight will run Sundays, in addition to its trans-territorial flights that already run Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

The extra flight will be operated by a Summit Air RJ85 aircraft, with whom the airline has expanded a charter passenger service post-codeshare.

The extra flight responds to customer feedback, First Air said, as the codeshare arrangement officially comes to an end May 16.

Last November, First Air announced it was pulling out of the agreement, first put in place in May 2015.

The codeshare deal allowed the two airlines to share routes rather than duplicate services in a tight airline market.

Since then, the airline has been working to bring all six of its new ATR42-500 prop aircraft into service to boost its fleet to 13, in addition to its service agreement with Summit Air.

Customers who previously made codeshare reservations beyond May 16 will automatically be re-confirmed on a new flight if their flight schedule has changed, the airline said.