Air Inuit to add three 737-800 jets to its fleet
New aircraft are for ‘modernization’ of fleet, will be used for passengers and freight, airline says
Air Inuit announced Monday it will acquire three Boeing 737-800 jets to eventually replace the 737-200 aircraft, seen in this 2021 file photo, in its fleet. (Photo by Jean-Pierre Bonin)
Air Inuit will be bringing more Boeing 737 jets into northern air, as the company announced that it finalized an agreement to acquire three of the aircraft.
The company announced Monday it will be getting three Boeing Next-Generation 737-800 aircraft, which can seat up to 189 people.
It did not disclose the price of acquiring the three aircraft in its news release.
Air Inuit distributed this image of what its Boeing Next-Generation 737-800s will look like with company colours. The airline announced Monday it finalized an agreement to acquire three of the aircraft to modernize its fleet. (Photo courtesy of Air Inuit)
Getting the three aircraft is meant to modernize Air Inuit’s fleet, Pita Aatami, president of Makivvik Corp., which owns the airline, said in the release.
“The addition of these aircraft to our fleet enhances our capacity to efficiently transport passengers and deliver essential cargo to the communities we serve,” Christian Busch, president and chief executive officer of Air Inuit, said in the release.
He said by using the newer 737-800 aircraft to eventually replace its 737-200s, fuel emissions will be cut by 40 per cent.
The three 737s will be customized to provide safe passenger service, as well as reliable freight delivery. Each of the three 737s will be fitted with main deck cargo doors in order to meet requirements for Nunavik’s hubs.
The three 737s will gradually be introduced into Nunavik over the next two years.
In getting these 737-800s, government investments will be needed to upgrade Nunavik’s airstrips, Air Inuit said in its release.
Discussions to ensure those upgrades are made are underway and an update will be provided in the coming months, Air Inuit said.
It’s a shame Canadian North is the only airline flying in the Kitikmeot Region, and they have sky high prices that leave a lot of us never leaving our communities because we cannot afford to buy plane tickets, and the only way out is for our medical appointments south. Air Inuit, please consider expanding your services to all of Nunavut. Quanaqutiit.
YCB needs to have a paved strip. We need a paved strip in this region just like the other two regions. The current situation with the small uncomfortable ATRs designed for European short haul travel needs to be addressed.
Come on GN get it together and get this runway paved.
Cambridge is not a travel hub the same way rankin and iqaluit are. With yellowknife so close to Cambridge it doesn’t make sense to pave that runway because it will never be a travel hub where people overnight to get to other communities.
In other words , you can t have your cake and eat it too. But you can dream and hope.
Just because Cambridge isn’t a travel hub doesn’t mean Cambridge doesn’t deserve a paved run way, community is growing, cargo is needed frequently, medical patients mainly for ultrasound within the kitikmeot region go to Cambridge for appointments
Why is it so difficult to pave? It’s not rocket science, why can’t the hamlets train their road crew to learn how to pave and get the equipment to do so? Each year the hamlets can pave their runways bringing the equipments to other communities by sealift.
It’s not that complicated.
Paving a runway requires a ton more engineering than paving a road. Carrying a semi is much different than a jet full of passengers. Like being a lawyer or an electrician, there are some things you can’t just “train” people to do.
Why would air inuit want to serve nunavut? Makkivik Corp (air inuit company) owns 50% of Canadian North. Why would they bother competing against themselves?
Canadian North will never go for that , even though , it owned by the same entity . probably , due to some sort of bonus shortfall.
The only paved runway in nunavik is kuujjuaq, so in other words, this means the end of jet service to puvirnituq and great whale.
QC ,Wake up and take care of your PPL better.
Start an Airline .
All the money that is come from Nunavut goes to Makivik.
What are you waiting for?
Time to get competitive.
Years ago when First air phased out the a748 for the ATR aircraft they mention how much more fuel efficient they are,bur we are still paying high air fares?????
Would be great if AC flew to Nunavut, the de Havilland Dash 8-400 (twin-turboprop) (DH8D) definitely be able to land in Rankin Inlet and Iqaluit, A thought for QIA and KIA to reach out to
AC to see if they would do a trail and compete with Canadian North.
Seach the aircraft type and you will see that it’s doable for passenger airline not freight.
A round trip run every other day by AC’s discount carrier. Bug enough to take some burden off and cheap enough the keep Canadian North honest.
Mr. Withheld. Do you think for a sec a non-inuit owned company like AC would be able to survive in Nunavut? No matter what, CN will always have the government contracts (medical, duty travel) and the GN would likely prohibit the use of AC as it would be seen as supporting a non-inuit company. What AC needs to do is establish an inuit-owned subsidiary for Nunavut operations and win a few government contracts. KIA maybe? Then, they could have a fighting chance.
This is the reason why I mentioned QIA and KIA to reach out to Air Canada and maybe see if a trail would be feasible
Air Canada used to fly to Iqaluit and just cherry pick the busiest season for travel. If they decided that they couldn’t make Iqaluit work (most travelers), do you really think they can make it work in the smaller communities?
Word has it that AC came in guns blazing without much of a plan. Most of the seats “sold” were award seats. I would like to see them try again seasonally and perhaps limit the award seats much like how CN is doing with aurora rewards. CN is laughing all the way to the bank with the monopoly.
It’s really too bad Nunasi with some key board members decided to sell their shares of Canadian North, one board member in particular was so against Canadian North and preferred to fly First Air at the time she wanted to get rid of Canadian North at all cost.
Now fast forward to today, we are worse off.
Nunavut needs its own airline, that’s the only way things will improve with our air service, medical, cargo and so on.
With the amount the GN spends on medical travel, staff travel plus the millions in donations the GN gives Canadian North it would make better sense to invest in its own airline or buy shares in one to have a actual say in how the airline can operate in Nunavut.
Nunasi can very well purchase an airline if they wanted to or even partner up with AC.
Nunasi is based in Nunavut and therefore can easily be awarded the medical travel contract from the GN if the opportunity came up to bid.
The shareholders for Nunasi represent the Inuit of all three regions in Nunavut – Qikiqtani Inuit Association, Kivalliq Inuit Association, and Kitikmeot Corporation.
https://www.nunasi.com/who-we-are/#ownership-structure
The link above will give you the information of ownership.
Read the following information from
https://www.nasittuq.com
In January 2021, Nasittuq Corporation re-organized its corporate structure to become an Inuit controlled corporation registered as an Inuit Firm on the Nunavut Inuit Firm Registry (IFR #1043) and the Nunatsiavut Government Business Directory (#201). The shareholders of the company include Nunasi Corporation, PAIL and ATCO Frontec.
Under the new structure, Nunasi Corporation holds 51% voting rights and ATCO Frontec holds 49% voting rights, with a 51% equity interest held by PAIL and a 49% equity interest held by ATCO Frontec.
Nasittuq Corporation, an Inuit majority-owned corporation, has been awarded a Government of Canada contract to operate and maintain the North Warning System (NWS). The seven-year contract, which will begin on April 1, 2022, is valued at $592M and there are four two-year option periods.