Canadian North says Iqaluit’s COVID-19 outbreak may lead to passenger flight cancellations
‘It’s a stressful time for us and the people we are serving. It’s very hard to plan,’ says VP
Canadian North vice-president Andrew Pope says that Iqaluit’s COVID-19 outbreak is creating challenges for the airline. (File photo)
Canadian North is already feeling a short-term pinch caused by Iqaluit’s COVID-19 outbreak and its vice-president says he is worried about how hard it could be on the company in the long term.
Andrew Pope, the airline’s vice-president for customer and commercial, said that the outbreak in Nunavut’s capital may lead to the cancellation of passenger flights.
“Our airline is definitely under some stress and trying react to this crisis,” Pope said. “It’s a stressful time for us and the people we are serving. It’s very hard to plan.”
The outbreak has already led to a staffing shortage in Iqaluit, where one of the airline’s employees tested positive for COVID-19 last week.
“At this point, we have not made any changes to our passenger travel (schedules) but that’s something we are going to have to assess in the days that come,” he said.
“If we see that passenger movements drop drastically, then it will not be smart for us to fly around empty planes and have our resources consumed with doing that instead of redirecting them to cargo.”
The Government of Nunavut could also impose passenger travel restrictions if the outbreak grows, he said.
When Arviat experienced its COVID-19 outbreak, travel was restricted to and from the community. Those restrictions ended March 29.
In March 2020, during the onset of the pandemic, the GN also banned most travel into the territory, before there was any COVID-19 in the territory.
And last April, all travel to and from Pond Inlet was restricted, with the exception of cargo and emergency travel after the detection of a case, later found to be a false positive.
So far, the Iqaluit outbreak resulted in Canadian North’s cancellation of three 737 cargo freighters into Iqaluit over the weekend.
Customers in the north and south were also asked to put their cargo shipments on pause and expect some delays.
As well, several passenger flights were cancelled around the Baffin region due to a lack of staff.
Canadian North is taking steps to return its staffing levels to normal and resume normal operations, Pope said.
“During this recovery we are going to prioritize movement of essential goods, food, medical supplies and [we] will focus on trying to ensure that the supply chain for these items is maintained as much as possible.”
Pope likened the outbreak’s impact on Canadian North’s movements so far to that of a three-day blizzard, with a big difference: no one knows when the COVID outbreak in Iqaluit will blow itself out.
“The situation is still quite fluid, so it’s hard to project into the future with a high degree of certainty,” Pope said.
Correction
An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that the outbreak would result in financial losses for the airline on some of its most lucrative routes in and out of Iqaluit. The airline says that these routes are not lucrative during the pandemic and it relies on public subsidies to continue the routes. We regret the error.
Stop crying, nobody listens anymore. Your service as First Air, Canadian North or as the merged big airline, has been dissatisfying for years and without the GN you all would have been broke years ago.
You have made a start to get more money in support from the GN, but in this case, maybe the GN should ask Canadian North for reimbursements. How would you like this Mr. Pope?
?
Air Canada……come back after Pandemic.
Air Canada only benefits Iqaluit.
They won’t fly to Pond Inlet, Clyde, or anywhere else north or west of Iqaluit.
I suspect that with the Covid-19 pandemic there has been a lot less demand on both the passenger and cargo sides, which probably means that Canadian North has less ground crew on site than in a normal year.
.
Crews at Ottawa have probably also been cut back leaving little possibility of drafting new ground crews for those in Iqaluit who must isolate to prevent the further spread of Covid-19.
.
As for airlines getting subsidies from the GN and/or federal government, what would you rather happen? I’m sure that if Canadian North didn’t pay its bills the aircraft lessors, and the banks could repossess everything. How does that help you get food in the store, medicine to the hospital, or even furnace parts?
.
The last worldwide pandemic was in 1918. It’s not like this happens every 5 years and everyone has contingency plans for it. Yeah most governments and businesses have made mistakes, and will continue to make them.
.
Did Canadian North have a contingency plan for all of their cargo staff needing to isolate at Iqaluit? I doubt it. Should they have? Yeah, probably.
,
This is where rapid testing could help out. Ground crews could be tested each and every day. Negative you go to work, positive you isolate until you test negative.
Hey mister Pope did you just wake up since last year , all airline around the world are in trouble did I have to explain why.
You obviously have not had the test. Having that long swab shoved up your nose until it’s tickling the back of your eye balls does not feel great, to have that done daily would be border line torture.
Is there no other way to determine positive covid testing
Some industries are doing rapid testing 3x a week, if the choice was a swab shoved up my nose every other day or CERB, I’d take the swab.
As of March 10th Iqaluit public health opened priority level four vaccines to anyone 18+. Why were the staff of Canadian Air not included in this opportunity to prevent spread of COVID 19?
Many provinces have requested help from the army. Maybe it is time for Nunavut to consider asking for this kind of help.