Calm Air resumes service to Kivalliq

PATRICIA D’SOUZA

Calm Air will resume service to Coral Harbour and Repulse Bay later this month, with scheduled flights five days a week.

The airline, based in Thompson, Manitoba, pulled out of the region in August, leaving residents of the two communities with the single-engine service of Kivalliq Air.

Residents complained about the regional airline’s small planes with no washrooms, which made it uncomfortable for medical patients to travel.

“Repulse Bay has been very vocal. We know the people were very, very upset. And we know Coral Harbour has been vocal as well,” said David Wright, Calm Air’s northern marketing manager.

Earlier this year, Calm Air pulled out of a northern Ontario route when a contract with Air Canada ended. Calm Air representatives began to look into reinstating the Kivalliq route to find a use for a Saab 340 aircraft that previously flew to Thunder Bay, Ontario.

The new service is scheduled to begin June 17.

The viability of the Kivalliq route will depend on whether the airline can generate business from medical patients. The reason Calm Air pulled out of the region in August is because it couldn’t sustain its service without medical traffic.

“We weren’t given any medical traffic,” Wright said. “We weren’t getting anybody and we don’t know why.”

The medical contract is divided among airlines serving the region. Wright hopes the department of health and social services will allow patients to choose which airline they want to fly.

And he also hopes that, given the choice, they’ll choose Calm Air.

“If this doesn’t work and we don’t get support from the community, we can’t keep operating,” Wright said.

To give residents an incentive to fly Calm Air, the airline is rolling out an increased schedule and a luxury plane. Before August, the airline operated only one flight a week with an overnight stop-over in Repulse Bay, while Kivalliq Air flew three or four times a week.

This time around, Calm Air’s service will operate five days a week.

In addition, the Saab 340 has leather seats, and seating capacity for 34. Its washrooms are the type commonly found on 737 jets.

“People do have a choice,” Wright said. “We’re not saying give us all the traffic or half the traffic. We’re saying give people a choice.”

Calm Air is also hoping the hamlet of Repulse Bay will lengthen its runway to accommodate the Saab 340, which requires 4,000 feet to take off and land. The runway in Repulse Bay is only 3,400 feet long.

“I’m hoping that people will support us a lot more than before if they get the chance to make the decision themselves,” he said.