Air Greenland to continue Iqaluit-Nuuk direct flights next year

Updated Sept. 19 at 11:20 a.m. ET

Air Greenland will continue providing direct flights between Iqaluit and Nuuk next year, the company’s CEO says.

“I can promise — we’re back next year,” Jacob Nitter Sorensen told delegates to the Nunavut Trade Show and Conference in Iqaluit Tuesday night.

He boasted he came to the trade show from Nuuk on a two-hour flight instead of taking the “36-hour ordeal through Europe” it used to be to fly to Nunavut’s capital from Greenland’s.

Air Greenland and Canadian North started a pilot project in June to connect the two cities after years of false starts and a delay caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Air Greenland announced in October 2023 it would provide the service from June through October 2024. An arrangement with Canadian North allowed passengers to travel from Nuuk through Iqaluit to Ottawa or Montreal.

An Air Greenland plane lands at the Iqaluit airport on June 26, the first day of regular weekly flights linking Iqaluit and Nuuk, Greenland. (Photo by Jeff Pelletier)

In 2025, the service will also be seasonal, but Sorensen said he hopes it will start earlier than it did this year. The first flight, which took off June 26, was scheduled later than expected because of licensing delays.

The service is expected to wind down for the year in mid-October.

The company hasn’t decided the specific date to resume service in 2025 but will announce one soon, Sorensen said in an interview.

“There’s been really good interest” in the service, he added, but noted that booking slowed down after Nuuk’s airport lost its security approval from the Danish government.

Sorensen said he didn’t have the number of passengers who used the service, which is still in operation until mid-October.

“We’re not quite profitable [on the route] this year, but I’m hoping we will be next year,” he said. “It’s promising.”

The viability of the route depends on how many people use it.

“We need to get them to do it, not just talk.”

Air Greenland began providing direct Nuuk-Iqaluit service in 2011 but cancelled it in 2012, Sorensen said.

Then in 2020, Air Greenland and Canadian North worked out an agreement to provide the service as a partnership. But those plans were grounded because of COVID-19 travel restrictions.

Speaking to a crowd of about 200 at a reception for the trade show, Sorensen played up the cultural similarities between Nunavummiut and Greenlanders.

“We do the same. We feel the same … We eat the same,” he said.

Note: This story was updated to correct the date that Jacob Nitter Sorensen addressed the trade show