Air Labrador swoops in on Iqaluit

CHARLOTTE PETRIE

As friendly and loyal as its breed suggests, the newest airline to touch down in Iqaluit is just doing what its “master” wants.

On March 1, Air Labrador began regularly scheduled Saturday flights connecting Iqaluit with the Newfoundland-Labrador communities of Goose Bay, Stephenville and St. John’s, the only direct flight between Nunavut and Canada’s Atlantic region.

A one-way flight from Iqaluit to St. John’s on Air Labrador’s 18-seat Beech 1900D aircraft takes about seven hours.

Ward Pike, Air Labrador’s vice-president of marketing and sales, said folks originally back home on the east coast asked for the service.

“They’re our guys up there [in Iqaluit],” Pike said.

A Goose Bay woman working for a travel agent in Iqaluit was the first to approach Pike about the idea, even giving him a bit of a hard time about it — in good fun.

“A girl at Qamutik Travel said for us to get our butts up here,” Pike recalled with a laugh.

That was just the beginning. The chartered flights that the airline was providing between the east coast and Iqaluit had become so popular, the company decided to sit down and explore bigger and better options.

When word got out that the airline was considering the idea, the news was passed around like screech at a kiss-the-cod initiation.

“We started to get bombarded with requests and letters of support,” Pike said. “I literally had over 680 requests [via] public e-mails and faxes.”

Needless to say, the airline expects business to get off the ground quickly. And so does Iqaluit Chamber of Commerce president Steve Cook.

“We’re always excited when there’s a new business coming to town, especially if it has the potential for local spin-off,” Cook said.

“Airside services like fuel, meals, refurbishing of the aircraft to make the turn-around are all possibilities for local business,” he continued.

But the biggest thing, Cook added, is that Iqaluit is now home to a lot of people from Newfoundland and Labrador, looking for an easier way to get home.

“That in itself is exciting. It also means there’s an opportunity for folks to come this way, from a tourist point of view. The more we know about each other the more we’ll know about business opportunities in each of our respective communities.”

Not yet set up with a desk at the local airport, the newcomer airline is working in conjunction with travel agents and Canadian North to handle flight information.

“We’re working very, very closely with a whole bunch of people, from the Government of Nunavut on down, to create a good service on the eastern seaboard,” Pike said.

Without encroaching on the local competition, that is.

“We’re not trying to muscle in on First Air turf,” Pike said. “They do an absolutely fantastic job. It’s not an aggressive thing we’re doing here, we’re just responding to a need to provide more direct service between Newfoundland, Labrador and Nunavut.”