Greenland-Nunavut air service could be back next year

NUUK – Scheduled airline flights between Canada and Greenland could be back by the spring of 2005, ending a four-year break in regular commercial air transportation between the two neighbours.

Air Greenland has completed a feasibility study on a direct Greenland-Canada run and is now waiting for a firm promise of financial help from the home rule government.

A trip to Iqaluit from Nuuk – normally two or three hours – now requires at least 20 hours of air travel through Copenhagen and Montreal, taking three days to complete, and costing thousands of dollars in fares.

Air Greenland could offer King Air service during the winter months and Dash-7 service in the summer months to Nuuk, or even decide to continue using Kangerlussuaq as its hub to North America, and fly a jet to Iqaluit or directly to Montreal.

“With some assistance, it might be feasible,” said Michael Binzer, director of sales and marketing for Air Greenland. “Political interest is the key.”

Starting in 1994, First Air and Greenlandair operated the route together, by pooling revenues and expenses, but the cooperation broke down in 2001 when Greenlandair announced it would pull out of the pool agreement.

The turmoil in the airline industry following the events of Sept. 11, 2001 dealt the final blow.

“Direct connections would change everything,” said Mikaela Engel, Greenland’s deputy foreign affairs minister. “It’s such a pity. Nunavut is our closest neighbour. We have everything in common: language, history, everything.”

Due to the collapse of the air connection between Greenland and Nunavut, an October 2000 memorandum-of-understanding to encourage cooperation between the two regions never went anywhere.

“There hasn’t been any work done on that MOU – a bit like in that song, ‘a fine romance with no kisses,’ – a fine region with no connections. You can’t uphold the thought that Nunavut is our neighbour because in effect it’s two continents away even if it’s only an hour away,” Engel said. “It’s extremely silly that we don’t have that connection.”

Engel said East-West traffic in the Arctic is rarely viable, so there must be the political will to subsidize it.

“And there’s a willingness on the part of the home rule government to offer a deficit guarantee,” she said.

This means the Greenland government would cover some of the added expense of getting the service up and running and help offset the added landing fees for a period of a few years, as it did to open an Iceland-Greenland connection.

Per Berthelsen, the deputy mayor of Nuuk, and a member of the Greenlandic parliament, said flights to Canada would be popular with a new generation who have money to spend and who also speak English.

“The time is ripe to try again,” Berthelsen said, who has not visited Canada since the death of his close friend, Mark R. Gordon, many years ago.

Now, Berthelsen said he’s eager to return to Canada for a visit once regular service resumes.