New Canadian North airline courts western Nunavut
Kitikmeot Inuit Association president seeks direct Cambridge Bay–Iqaluit connection
This aircraft sports the livery of the new Canadian North. In preparation for the debut of the merged First Air and Canadian North, Andrew Pope, the vice-president of scheduled service for Canadian North, and Johnny Adams, the chair of First Air, came to Cambridge Bay for the annual general meeting of the Kitikmeot Inuit Association. (File photo by Brian Tattuinee)
CAMBRIDGE BAY—The new merged airline of First Air and Canadian North says it will look at how to schedule a flight from Cambridge Bay to Iqaluit, one which would not require a night in transit in Yellowknife.
This pledge comes after the Kitikmeot Inuit Association’s president, Stanley Anablak, said on Wednesday that the region needs a flight east to Iqaluit that doesn’t require spending the night in Yellowknife, where it’s increasingly hard to get a hotel.
“We’re part of Nunavut,” Anablak told Johnny Adams, the chair of First Air, and Andrew Pope, the vice-president of scheduled service for Canadian North, who travelled to Cambridge Bay for the annual general meeting of the KIA.
Right now, it takes two days to get to Iqaluit via Rankin Inlet and Yellowknife, a trek that numerous residents of Cambridge Bay and the Kitikmeot region’s smaller communities undertake every week.
A previous scheduled route to Iqaluit via Igloolik lasted only for a few months under Canadian North back in the early 2000s. But these days many in the Kitikmeot say they have problems finding places to stay in Yellowknife due to its tourism boom, while the region’s non-government workers complain they are obliged to pick up the tab for the layover en route to the Nunavut capital.
For Kitikmeot residents, the new merged airline’s schedule, which comes into effect on Nov. 1, offers daily Boeing 737-200 Combi service between Yellowknife and Cambridge Bay.
At the same time, the merged airline offers connections from Cambridge Bay to Gjoa Haven, Taloyoak and Kugaaruk every day, and new southbound connections through Cambridge Bay to Yellowknife and then Edmonton.
Anablak still praised the new schedule for the future Canadian North merged airline as “the best” he’s seen.
The challenge for the new airline will be to connect flights out of the Kitikmeot to Yellowknife in time to meet the existing scheduled flight east or to come up with an entirely new direct option east out of Cambridge Bay.
Adams and Pope outlined some of what the new airline’s schedule will bring to all travellers in Nunavut.
The new pricing will offer lower-cost fares to customers who book further in advance and “our pricing will reflect our operational costs,” Pope said.
As well, seats on less popular flights on the new airline will cost less “to give customers a reason to book,” Pope said.
The new “economy” fare class will be available year-round for advance purchase on all routes where demand is lower.
According to the report, “Building your new Canadian North,” tabled at the AGM, the new pricing structure will also include:
• Lower pricing for customers who travel on less popular dates.
• More expensive seats reserved for passengers who book at the last minute and “are able to pay.”
• “Exclusive” beneficiary fares.
• Reduced cargo for country foods, snowmobiles and all-terrain vehicles.
• Discounts for businesses and organizations.
• Regular seat sales.
• Special fares for tourism operators.
• Continued support for special events.
It’s going to be alright—and maybe much better. That was the message from Andrew Pope, the vice-president of scheduled service for Canadian North, and Johnny Adams, the chair of First Air, who were in Cambridge Bay for the annual general meeting of the Kitikmeot Inuit Association. The two received small kamiiks made in the region from the KIA after they spoke on Wednesday, Oct. 2, to the AGM. (Photo by Jane George)
At the AGM, Adams and Pope encouraged all Nunavut travellers to enrol in the Aurora Rewards loyalty program.
Points can be redeemed towards free flights on all routes from Nov. 1 on.
Some KIA delegates wanted to know what the impact of the airline merger would be on employees of the two airlines in the smaller communities.
Job reductions in northern communities will be limited to 10 per cent network-wide, they heard, with most of those achieved due to attrition.
The average citizen in the Kitikmeot doesn’t care about flying direct to Iqaluit. We just need to get to Yellowknife and Edmonton. This is a high level position problem for presidents, CEOs, etc.
It is so expensive already to travel Iqaluit or other north Baffin communities, plus hoteliers Yellowknife and Iqaluit (sometimes 2 nights) food, taxis etc. So a flight without going to Yellowknife would save a lot more money.
Odd that the article does not mention one of the major challenges of a direct YCB-YFB route is a lot people prefer a paid overnight in YZF so they can shop at Walmart and Canadian Tire.
Iqaluit needs a Walmart so we don’t need to go Ottawa or Yellowknife.
Would be fantastic to route the Cambridge Bay – Iqaluit connection through Rankin Inlet. Provide solid logistics linkages between all three regional hubs and enable the efficient flow of residents and employees across the entire territory.
How many times is the weather a factor travelling to Rankin Inlet and Cambridge Bay? Old hotels have such moldy smells which travelers have no say over when there is nothing else available.
The Cambridge-Rankin connection isn’t nearly as important because there’s only a few times a year people need to travel between those two. It’s more often that someone from Cambridge or Rankin has to go to Iqaluit than someone from Rankin has to get to Cambridge, or vice-versa. The main with the previous attempt was the stop in Igloolik; practically no one needs to travel between Cambridge and Igloolik, and Igloolik already has flights to Iqaluit, so there was essentially no benefit to that stop.
The only lower fares we will see after the merger are for the seats noone travels on?
I thought this merger was making “operation costs lower and more efficient”. If they do indeed make the operation costs more efficient, than why are the travel costs for customers not more efficient?
First Air started a trans-territorial flight linking Iqaluit – Igloolik – Kugaaruk – Taloyoak – Gjoa Haven – Cambridge Bay – Yellowknife in the fall of 1987. The flight started at twice a week and then was increased to three times a week and ran for a number of years. Besides the problem with the flight length itself there was very little passenger demand between east & west.
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Baffin travels to Iqaluit & Ottawa, Kivalliq travels to Rankin Inlet & Winnipeg, and Kitikmeot travels to Yellowknife & Edmonton. It`s been that way for 50 years for good reasons such as supply lines, even same time zones.
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Other than the milk run above there are a few ways to connect Cambridge Bay & Iqaluit on a same day basis. It can be done, such as the trans-territorial starting from each end (Ottawa & Edmonton). You would still have to overnight an aircraft at Cambridge Bay to get an early departure to meet up with an eastbound jet at Yellowknife in the morning, and then do a northbound connection off a westbound jet from Iqaluit in the evening. It can be done but it`s expensive to overnight at Cambridge (hangar, crew expenses, spares, mechanic, etc). .
Probably better to just run a milk run once a week but don`t expect the route to turn a profit because it won`t. The number of people who want to travel between the places just is not there on a regular basis, and as Airline Dude points out a lot of people like the layover in Yellowknife for shopping.
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Hopefully Canadian North won`t get too focused on trying to please the RIO demands as a lot of what they say they want is not economically feasible.
I’m not sure why you think overnighting a jet in Cambridge Bay would be necessary for this route? Or you just mean getting from Cambridge Bay to Iqaluit in one day without a direct flight?
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Couldn’t you fly from YK to CB in 1.5 hours, 45 minute layover, fly from Cambridge Bay to Iqaluit in what, 3 hours? 45 minute layover, and then fly Iqaluit to to Ottawa in 3 hours. Total trip time of around 9 hours, so you could leave YK at 9am and land in Ottawa at 6pm, or a little earlier or later. Turn around the next day and do it in reverse.
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Or you could do it all in one day, YK>CB>IQ>CB>YK in about 11h15m counting 45 minute layovers.
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Now I’m not saying that the flight is feasible, I honestly have no idea if there would be enough demand for this flight, especially as I think a large portion of airline revenue is from cargo. And I think the cargo would be minimal after the CB stop on the eastbound route and after the IQ stop on the westbound route. Why fly things to IQ from YK when they could come up from Ottawa? Why fly things to CB from IQ when they could come from YK?
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It would be great to have that flight, but I’m not getting my hopes up.
Sorry if I was not clear, the Cambridge Bay -Yellowknife portions would be on a turboprop aircraft. This could be used to connect to a jet on the trans-territorial service for a same day connection.
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For example, a turboprop starts at Cambridge Bay – Yellowknife first thing in the morning. It then does other flights such as Yellowknife – GJoa Haven – Taloyoak – Yellowknife. It is then available to connect from an westbound trans-territorial flight and fly Yellowknife – Cambridge Bay.
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Jet 1 YEG-YZF-YRT-YFB-YOW
Jet 2 YOW-YFB-YRT-YZF-YEG
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First Air did operate these routings for a while but for various reasons decided that it was not viable long term.
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Meanwhile a turboprop could operate YCB-YZF-YHK-YYH-YZF-YCB. Cambridge Bay could make same day eastbound connection to YRT, YFB, and YOW, plus connections from YOW, YFB, YRT would be made at YZF back into Cambridge Bay in the evening.
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The only problems with the above is that it costs a heck of a lot of money to overnight a turboprop in Cambridge Bay (hangar, maintenance, accommodations), and there’s maybe at most 5 people a week that need to go between Cambridge Bay and Iqaluit.
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Over 90% of travel is;
1) Baffin – Iqaluit – Ottawa
2) Kivalliq- Rankin Inlet – Winnipeg
3) Kitikmeot – Yellowknife – Edmonton
4) Iqaluit – Rankin Inlet – Yellowknife
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The above is what the airline needs to concentrate on, there simply is not enough passenger volume to justify a YCB – YFB flight as a priority. If there are same day connections available, fine, but don’t screw up 95% to make 5% happy.
OK, I think I see what you’re doing, finding a way to combine the existing turboprop milk runs into the connection to Iqaluit? My thought was that maybe once a week you could just run a jet from YK through CB and Iqaluit and down to Ottawa, and back the next day. But yeah, either way I have doubts about the demand for those routes, especially with limited availability it might not even be feasible for those on GN duty travel.
There are a lot of things that Cambridge Bay needs, but a flight to Iqaluit isn’t one of them. Give us earlier flights out of Cam Bay, and mid-day flights from YK to Edmonton so that we can get down to Edmonton more easily.
The regional hub for the kitikmeot is yellowknife. Aside from Sr Mgrs and Directors, nobody in Cambridge has any real business in Iqaluit.
If people are complaining about lack of hotel rooms in YK the airlines should solve this problem. An airport hotel should be looked at with beds that are exclusively for travellers and those on layover, not international Northern Lights observers.
I used to fly to Holman Island when it was still considered part of the Kitikmeot, you had to pass through Coppermine on NWT air, and it was cheap back then. NOW! YEG to Holman
is $4780.00 return and them poor people from Holman to Yellowknife return is
$4263.00(Saver) my lord, SHAME on you First air and “Canadian North that’s your people”.
Edmonton to Mexico 5 star hotel, plus flight for seven days for my wife and I was $3500 dollars. People from North of 60 should be asked when booking, to give their right kidney at the same time for a discount.
When I was growing up bread was 5 for $1.00 and a Coke from the gas station vending machine was $0.06.
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And your point is?
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If you’re calling the communities Coppermine and Holman and were flying on NWT Air I’m thinking it was 30 to 50 years ago. Kinda tough comparing prices from then and now and expecting them to be the same.
Old Trapper your abit slow ah? the point of the story is the cost now, not then to now……When you use to buy coke for 6 cents and your asking what my point………These guys want a route through to YFB and there is a much bigger things to worry about like the cost of its own people, I get that YCB is the new hub of Nunavut, look at how much they’ve been given the past few years, and your asking me what my point is? read the story, get off your original Apple computer powered by your bicycle and re-read the story; and look alittle closer in detail read it it, that my point
According to the report, “Building your new Canadian North,” tabled at the AGM, the new pricing structure will also include:
• Lower pricing for customers who travel on less popular dates.
• More expensive seats reserved for passengers who book at the last minute and “are able to pay.”
• “Exclusive” beneficiary fares.
Correct me if I’m wrong but I thought that the point of your comment was that it used to be “cheap” to travel between Holman and Yellowknife when NWT Air was flying DC-3’s and that it was now more expensive. Sine this was 30 to 50 years ago I merely pointed out that prices have increased quite a bit between then and now.
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Elsewhere I have pointed out that First Air has in the past operated direct multi stop flights between Cambridge Bay and Iqaluit, and that it is possible to schedule same day connections between Cambridge Bay and Iqaluit.
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Do I think that either is a worthwhile scenario? No, I don’t think that either would be break even, therefore other services would have to subsidize the service. This might be acceptable to the new airline but everyone should be aware of the fact if my assumption is correct. Quite simply an airline cannot operate every route at a loss and expect to continue in business.
Take some time to look at the schedule after 01 Nov. Pond Inlet, Igloolik & Hall Beach. You will now have to overnight in Ottawa as you ariive there at 10pm. Now you can travel to most places in Canada in one day. The western arctic may have great service coming in Nov but some eastern arctic communities got screwed.
I have just seen the new new schedule from November 1st. I realize that no direct connection will be offered between Pond-Inlet and Igloolik. There are many families in those two communities that are relatives. They will be obliged to pass through Iqaluit with an incredible cost. I believe that is unfair.