Canadian North to fly direct between Iqaluit and Toronto this summer
Airline announces plan to offer direct flights from June 3 to Sept. 30
Canadian North will be offering direct flights between Iqaluit and Toronto this summer, the company announced Wednesday. If demand is strong, the direct flights may be offered longer, a company vice-president said. (File photo)
Passenger flights between Canada’s most populous city and its northernmost capital just got a lot more convenient during the summer. Canadian North announced on Wednesday it will offer direct flights between Iqaluit and Toronto from June 3 to Sept. 30.
“We think this route opens up opportunities for folks looking to travel into Nunavut … but also for Nunavummiut who are looking to travel south,” said Andrew Pope, Canadian North’s vice-president of customer and commercial.
The flights will go through the Toronto Pearson International Airport and take place on Friday and Sunday. A direct round-trip flight between the two cities during the summer starts at $951, according to Canadian North’s website.
The service is being offered in the anticipation of an increase in leisure travel as pandemic restrictions are lifted, Pope said.
That increase in travel, which includes vacation and family visiting, is why the service will be offered exclusively in the summer, he added.
Having a direct flight from Canada’s biggest city should give economic opportunities to the tourism sector in Nunavut, Pope said.
“It opens up a new marketplace,” he said.
As well, Nunavummiut who want to travel internationally will now have a direct flight to Toronto’s airport, which offers the most travel options in Canada to go abroad, Pope said.
Outside of leisure travel, having direct flights may help for work-related travel or save Nunavummiut money who otherwise would have had to spend more on connecting flights to Toronto.
Pope said that one of the most popular connector trips for Canadian North has been to Toronto, which gives the company confidence there will be a demand for direct-flight service.
He added that the additional costs of flying into Toronto were factored into the airline’s decision to create direct flights into the busiest airport in the country.
For example, the Pearson airport charges airlines a landing fee that’s nearly double what Ottawa’s airport charges.
Sarabeth Holden, the president of the Toronto Inuit Association, said she heard about the news after a cousin in Iqaluit showed her a social media post from Canadian North on Tuesday that teased the news of direct flights between Toronto and Iqaluit.
Both of their reactions were “oh my gosh,” said Holden, who spent time growing up in Pangnirtung and still has lots of family up North.
“It just makes it more accessible,” she said about the direct flight.
In previous flights to Iqaluit, if there was a weather delay, she could be stuck in a layover location like Ottawa for several days, Holden added. With a direct flight that will no longer a problem, she said.
The Inuit population in Toronto is estimated to be just over 1,000 people, Holden said.
To extend the amount of time the direct-flight service is offered or to make it permanent, Canadian North will be looking for strong demand, Pope said.
For that demand, he added that seats don’t need to be 100 per cent sold, but flights will need to be fairy full.
“Those are all things we’ll gauge as we see the response.”
This is very exciting news for the north. With Air North’s new Whitehorse –> Yellowknife –> Toronto flight and now this new Iqaluit –> Toronto flight, all three territorial capitals are now connected with the biggest city in Canada! This really opens up the north, as Pearson has direct connections to most parts of the world.
It would be nice to see a Toronto –> Iqaluit –> Nuuk flight open up as well to connect Greenland with the rest of North America.
They should do direct flights from Kugaaruk to Naujaat, would help so much in anyway, connect families make it easier for families trying to travel for funerals and so on. In order to go to the eastern communities you either need to overnight in Rankin Inlet or Iqaluit which is pretty costly to fly.
I always thought a flight connecting the 3 Regional hubs would be good. Cambridge – Rankin – Iqaluit. The problem is everybody loves overnighting in Yellowknife!
Great for eastern Nunavut! But, did you know that people in the Kitikmeot have to leave the territory in order to access the other regions in Nunavut? GN should be advocating for proper in-territory routes. No wonder there is such a disconnect between the Kitikmeot and Nunavut. And the time zone situation….but that’s a different news article.
pwa pacific western airlines used to fly directly from winnipeg,churchill,coral,hall beach
and that was a really good run freight was moved very well no waiting around no
hassle,also nordair used to fly direct from montreal too bad those days are gone,now
we wait for weeks on end for essential items we buy from manitoba and the current
system is flawed so bad that the co ops have to wait for there goods to come in on a timely manner,the public at large deserve better.
Nunatsiaq News Editor/Moderator
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Would you please prohibit other posters from using “old trapper” as their posting name as it may be confused with “The Old Trapper” which I have been using for roughly the past 20 years for posts on Nunatsiaq News. You can easily check all of my previous posts use the same email address.
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Thank you for your assistance.
If you all just used real names, you could avoid this.
– Corey Larocque, managing editor
Or, hear me out on this one…
What if they actually had a proper account system, so people couldn’t just enter any username they want and impersonate others?
Unless Canadian North flies to the East Coast, there will be complaints on any new southern destination. Only the East Coast will whet the rapacious appetite and entitlements of the loudest minority in Nunavut.
I believe that you are referring to Transair, which was then bought by Pacific Western, which then became Canadian Airlines International (which also purchased Nordair, and the remains of Wardair).
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Transair operated the F-28 on their jet routes and the YS-11 on the turboprop routes from their Winnipeg and Churchill bases. Along with serving Thompson they flew to Eskimo Point, Rankin Inlet, and Baker Lake.
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Nordair served Fort Chimo, Frobisher Bay, Hall Beach, Nanisivik, and Resolute from their Montreal base.
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Pacific Western operated from Edmonton to Fort Smith, Hay River, Yellowknife, Norman Wells, Inuvik, Cambridge Bay and Resolute.
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Wardair also operated a G1 (then a Dash 7) under charter from Yellowknife to Rankin Inlet, and Iqaluit.
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Not to forget Lambair, Calm Air, NWT Air, and of course Buffalo.
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“old trapper” could I ask you to choose another name to post under to avoid confusion. Thank you.
How about restoring service from Iqaluit to Greenland? Toronto feels like the flight route nobody actually asked for.
It could work with dash8 flights coming from Nuuk to Iqaluit for them to connect to Toronto, more incentive to fly here to travel further to Toronto and beyond.
I think probably because there isn’t a sustainable market for Iqaluit to Greenland. However I hope this is the start of Toronto to Iqaluit to Nuuk route.
Air Greenland tried that route (Nuuk – Iqaluit) and they had poor ridership. The majority of travelers were adventure travelers who were drawn by the idea of visiting two remote arctic capitals, but the route was unsustainable, and after the hype died off, most planes were relatively empty.
However, a connection with Toronto might work (and this article here hints at the possibility: https://nunatsiaq.com/stories/article/airlines-look-to-revive-direct-flights-between-iqaluit-and-nuuk-greenland/). One of the problems with Greenland is that the Nuuk runway is not equipped for large aircraft like the 737, which have to land in Kangerluusuaq instead, then transfer to a Dash 8 to Nuuk.
This would also make Nunavut accessible to the rest of Europe as well.
That’s recent history. Go back a little farther. First Air operated flights from Iqaluit to Greenland for 20 years, 1981 to 2001, the first 13 years Iqaluit to Nuuk and the next 7 by jet from Ottawa to Iqaluit to Kangerlusuaq (Sondrestromfjord). The flight to Nuuk was immensely popular and operated at least once a week but often twice because of demand (passengers and cargo). The decision to drop Nuuk and switch to Kangerlusuaq by jet was a stupid decision and cargo dried up, and passenger traffic was nowhere near sufficient to fill a jet. Most passengers had to transfer to go on to Nuuk anyway. A dumb idea and it failed. It all ended in 2001. Various attempts have been made since then to restart service, but they all suffered from poor marketing and they all failed. Nunavut and Greenland are farther apart now, figuratively speaking, than they have ever been. A shame, given the shared cultural roots.
Kenn, I don’t dispute your assessment concerning the wisdom of the decision to switch from Nuuk to Kangerlussuaq but as you probably know through your association with John and Andy there were other considerations.
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One was Greenlandair’s wish to serve the U.S. base at Thule by subchartering the First Air jet, along with an attempt to switch perishable cargo from Copenhagen to Ottawa.
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Once the subcharter portion went away the jet wasn’t really viable. And you are correct most of the passengers were to/from Nuuk – going via Kangerlussuaq was an added expense and inconvenience.
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What you may not be aware of is the direct Iqaluit – Nuuk route was only feasible due to the operating characteristics of the HS-748. Once that aircraft was slated for retirement neither Greenaldair’s Dash 7 or First Air’s ATR-42 were suited for the route due to payload limitations.
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Now that Air Greenland operates the Dash 8 the best way to operate the route is from Nuuk to Iqaluit to connect to the Canadian North jet and then return. Easy same day connections and if it connects to Toronto it’s a bonus and may generate more tourist travel.
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The tourism market is however very price sensitive, tour operators wouldn’t use the flights unless it was rock bottom pricing. Given the limited capacity on the turboprop portion and prorated shares between the airlines it’s hard to make a financial case.
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Now if the GN would have only used the service instead of chartering it may have lasted longer. In any case it may be one of the routes that does need a minor subsidy, something that Canadian governments seem dead set against.
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Hopefully Air Greenland will give the route another try.
The same could be said with a flight connecting Inuvik or Whitehorse with Fairbanks. Many Gwitchen and Inuvialuit have cultural ties with Alaksan Natives, but that isn’t enough for people to make the trip. Same culture, different families.
West Jet come to Nunavut, AC come back.
Good for the airlines opening up again. If this is an Airline of the Northerners, than would like to see reduced fares from our northernmost communities. Read the other year, just to go Iqaluit / Grise was like flying many times between Iqaluit and the south. Is it that money over services is the precedence? Seems to be catering to the wealthy than providing services to the region. Mamianaq.