Iqaluit-Nuuk flight set to strengthen Arctic ties, officials say
Direct flight between capital cities scheduled to take off Wednesday after 10-year hiatus
Navarana Beveridge, the Danish honourary consul in Iqaluit, calls the new direct flights between Iqaluit and Nuuk, Greenland, a “great opportunity” for friends and family in the two countries to see each other more easily. (Photo provided by Navarana Beveridge)
Travelling home to Greenland used to be a costly and time-consuming commitment for Iqaluit’s Navarana Beveridge.
The route required Beveridge to fly from Iqaluit to Ottawa, then to Toronto.
From Toronto, she would fly to Iceland or Denmark. And only then, after three days of travel, several time zones and a few thousand dollars cost per person for her family of three, she would take the final flight to Nuuk.
In August, Beveridge is travelling to Greenland again to celebrate the birth of her sister’s child. But this time, she will be flying on Air Greenland’s 37-seat Dash 8 aircraft that will fly direct from Iqaluit to Nuuk in two hours.
This flight will cost approximately $400 for a one-way ticket, now that the airline has revived a direct route in partnership with Canadian North.
Beveridge is the Danish honorary consul in Iqaluit, whose role is to connect people of the two northern regions.
“I’m so happy,” she said. “It will be such a great opportunity to go and see our newest family member.”
The weekly flights between Nuuk and Iqaluit begin Wednesday with an inaugural celebration. They are scheduled to run until Oct. 23.
“I think it’s very exciting,” said Carolyn Bennett, the Canadian Ambassador to Denmark, from her office in Copenhagen on Monday.
These flights speak to the “thirst that people have to be able to be a community,” despite being separated by water and ice, Bennett said.
The last Iqaluit-Nuuk flight season, operated by Air Greenland, occurred in 2014. The airline cut the route in 2015 due to low ridership.
“There’s been efforts for a long time from both sides to get a new direct route started,” Beveridge said.
“I do think that the route will be feasible, especially if there’s some stimulation of business or trading interests.”
This time, the airlines are running the route under a co-operation agreement signed in August 2022 between Nunavut and Greenland..
The agreement, signed by Nunavut Premier P.J. Akeeagok and Greenland Prime Minister Múte B. Egede, “further strengthened” the relationship between the two regions and “facilitated future co-operation” in areas like culture, arts, education, travel and tourism, marine infrastructure, fisheries and green energy.
The revived route will be a foundation for even closer ties between Nunavut and Greenland, said Hanne Fugl Eskjaer, Denmark’s ambassador to Canada, in an email.
“Connecting Greenland to Canada is yet another important milestone in terms of strengthening collaboration and interaction,” she said.
“I know how much this means to the peoples living in the North. There are strong family connections and historical ties between the peoples of Greenland and Nunavut and I am thrilled that families and friends will now be able to reconnect more frequently.”
Remember canadian north flight to Toronto? Remember canadian north flight to Calgary? How long before they add Godthaab/Nuuk to the list?
Heck, remember the last Canadian North flight to Greenland?
Wow Canadian North in partnership with Air Greenland a one way flight of 2 hrs flying time will cost $400.00!
Our beneficiary one way fair to Yellowknife at 2hr and 30 mins cost over $591.00 using the ilak fair. While travelling to Yellowknife I see 4-7 seat open and talking with a agent regarding booking a seat as a Beneficiary of canadian north like through aurora rewards points the agen would be like we don’t have anymore seats available like 3-7 seats open I witnessed that multiple times. Would be nice to have the top people look into this issue or GNU look into this too. A lot of southerners working for Canadian North call centre too!!!
This is great news, people forget that life has changed since Covid and while it has people like the previous posters dwelling on the past, times have changed. Why this didn’t work in the past isn’t really important. Canadian North tried the other routes but didn’t receive the support to make it feasible. That’s your support in question posters.
Problem is everyone is negative about everything and always likes to take a jab whenever they can. Reality is you poor bastards don’t have another option and will likely never will. Canadian North has no choice to do things like this, numbers are limited coming out of or going into the North.
Reconciliation has called for change and this is one step of many in the right direction, people can connect easier to family members in Greenland and beyond, so many other opportunities to travel through Greenland for destinations in Iceland, Sweden and other great tourist destinations.
I am supporting Canadian North and their partnership with Air Greenland , the opportunities are endless and imagine a Inuit business from Nunavut partnering with a Inuit business in Greenland?
Get of your high horses and look for something positive in life. Miserable is a sad way to die.
What in the world does this have to do with reconciliation?
I have a very positive attitude.
I am absolutely positive that Canadian North could do better if the company was not stuck in its outdated mindset with its inefficient operations structure and its incompetent management. Having worked in the airline industry for over 30 years I have seen few still existing airlines that are as inefficient and unreliable as Canadian North.
When my cargo is important I have to find a way to ensure that it does not travel on Canadian North, even if that means chartering an aircraft.
Dismissing as “negative” those who do not tolerate being cheated and lied to is just shooting the messenger, which makes you sound like a Canadian North manager,