Iqaluit-Ottawa fliers down to one daily flight this winter

This Canadian North 737-300 is currently being configured into a combi, which is expected to begin serving the Ottawa-Iqaluit codeshare route in March 2017. (PHOTO BY SID BARBER)

A single codeshare flight will service the Iqaluit-Ottawa route from the end of December to the end of February, while Canadian North’s jet undergoes maintenance, the airline said this week.

The airline’s Boeing 737-200 goes into scheduled maintenance Dec. 13 until the end of February 2017, meaning Nunavut fliers between Iqaluit and Ottawa will rely on a single daily flight, operated by Canadian North’s codeshare partner, First Air.

That flight will continue to depart Ottawa at 9:15 a.m. every morning and leave Iqaluit at 1:45 p.m. each day.

But a second, later flight, usually operated by Canadian North, will not run for 11 days in December: Dec. 13, Dec. 14, Dec. 21, Dec. 23, Dec. 24 and the period between Dec. 26 to Dec. 31, considered “non-peak” travel days, the airline said.

Canadian North will then pull its aircraft for an eight-week period between Jan. 5 and Feb. 28.

“Because we typically see a substantial drop in traffic each year in January and February and certain days in December, we’ve confirmed that there will be more than enough capacity to serve our customers with one Ottawa-Iqaluit codeshare flight per day during this period,” said Canadian North spokesperson Kelly Lewis in a Nov. 7 email to Nunatsiaq News.

“We’ll add additional cargo capacity as required via freighter flights to ensure cargo continues to flow uninterrupted.”

Commercial aircraft are required to receive maintenance roughly every two years, or every 3,000 flight hours, the airline said.

Canadian North operated a single daily codeshare last year while First Air’s aircraft went for scheduled maintenance, Lewis noted.

Canadian North will be down two aircraft in its fleet during the period, however, while another of its 737-300s is being configured into a combi. That aircraft is expected to begin serving the Ottawa-Iqaluit codeshare route in March 2017.

Passengers who’ve already booked to travel on those dates between December and February have already been automatically re-booked onto the First Air flight and notified of the change, Canadian North said.

Customers can see a day-by-day summary of the temporary changes here.