Airline leverages Nutrition North contracts to offer 25 more flights in Nunavut

(Update 12:45 p.m., April 5)

Nutrition North Canada food cargo contracts have made it possible for the Canadian North airline to offer 25 additional scheduled flights per week to and from communities in Nunavut’s Kitikmeot and Qikiqtani regions.

Canadian North, in an April 5 announcement, said the new flights provide more same-day connections through Iqaluit to Ottawa for Qikiqtani residents, and more jet service for Kitikmeot residents.

A spokesperson for the airline said that as a result of the Nutrition North Canada program, which launched April 1, Canadian North has signed two major freight contracts to carry food.

The spokesperson said those contracts are subject to confidentiality clauses, and that the airline cannot disclose who their new customers are.

Under Nutrition North, retailers may negotiate the best possible cargo rates from airlines that they can find. Under the old food mail system, Canadian North’s competitor, First Air, enjoyed a virtual monopoly over the shipment of subsidized food freight in the eastern Arctic through contracts with Canada Post.

For that reason, Canadian North has been a strong supporter of Nutrition North, because it gives them an opportunity to compete for more air cargo contracts.

The new flights are as follows:

Kitikmeot

• a tripling of jet service between Cambridge Bay and Yellowknife each week, and more frequent Dash 8 service;

• jet service between Kugaaruk and Yellowknife once a week;

• jet service six days a week from Kugluktuk to Yellowknife, with four jet and three Dash 8 flights in the return direction; and

• one additional flight per week between Taloyoak and Yellowknife.

Qikiqtani

• daily service between Cape Dorset and Iqaluit;

• four flights per week from Clyde River to Iqaluit, with five flights a week returning to the community, allowing for same-day connections to and from Ottawa;

• the addition of four fights a week from Hall Beach to Iqaluit, totalling six flights, with the addition of three flights into the community from Iqaluit, allowing for same-day connections to and from Ottawa;

• the addition of four flights weekly from Igloolik to Iqaluit and an additional flight from Iqaluit to Igloolik; and

• seven flights per week between Pond Inlet and Iqaluit, with fewer stops en route.

The airline’s new schedule is available here.