Canadian North weekly flights between Yellowknife and Norman Wells and Inuvik and Norman Wells are set to drop by at least half starting June 4 as part of a restructuring of its spring and summer flight schedule, but the airline insists that it will mean improved connectivity for all residents travelling to larger hubs and the rest of Canada.
The airline stated in a news release on April 28 that there will be a reduction in seat availability on flights involving the Sahtu municipality. This will include a 50 per cent drop from Yellowknife to Norman Wells and a reduction by 54 per cent involving flights from Norman Wells to Yellowknife. There will also be similar reductions with Inuvik to Norman Wells by 54 per cent and reductions from Norman Wells to Inuvik by 54 per cent.
“These changes to our flight schedule are being done in order to reallocate the capacity and to put the flights where the demand is needed,” said Annie Thomlinson, media spokesperson from the airline, said. “We have altered the scheduled plan to better maintain the connectivity across our entire northern system.”
Caroline Wawzonek, Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment made a social media post about the situation, April 26 and pointing out that only the week before, the federal government and Canadian North had agreed on new terms and conditions for the airline’s operations post-merger with Canadian North.
In response to questions from NNSL Media about the situation, Wawzonek said she was disappointed with the airline’s decision.
“NWT residents, particularly those in the territory’s more remote communities, rely on air transportation to visit family and friends, as well as attend medical and business appointments,” she said. “Not only will this create a challenge for residents in the region, but it will also impact tourism operators who rely on air travel to bring tourists into their communities.”
Thomlinson said that the number of passengers since the beginning of the year to and from Norman Wells to larger centres just has not seen a high demand for service.
“Since the start of 2023, on our Norman Wells flight segments, we have been seeing an average of 10 passengers in a plane that has capacity of between 80-100 seats,” she said.
“This was never sustainable. Just as all Canadians are facing price increases due to inflation, the airline industry is not immune. Despite that, as we become more efficient, and stop flying empty aircraft, our fares and flight schedules will eventually cover the cost of operating our flights.”
Norman Wells Mayor Frank Pope said on April 28 that the municipality understands the business situation of the airline but added that the adjustment creates “unjust hardship” for remote communities needing outside connection and facing a uniquely high cost of living.
Additional Canadian North flight service
Canadian North added in its statement that overall changes to its flight network will bring added service ‘while at the same time returning non-stop flying to key markets formerly flown as circuits or ‘milk runs’ in its turboprop network.’
“While some communities will have fewer flights, they will benefit from direct service instead of sharing the aircraft with 3 or 4 other communities (which has often resulted in shortages of seats and cargo capacity for communities at the end of the circuit or “milk run”),” states the release. “The new schedule gains efficiencies and adds more than 8 per cent capacity into and across the Canadian North network.
“It will also enable Canadian North to utilize its flight crews more effectively, which is crucial within the current industry-wide pilot shortage.”
NWT MP Michael McLeod said that he had been in contact with community members and his biggest takeaway was that people in Norman Wells were not well notified of these significant changes. He added that the federal government was surprised about the quickness of the announcement and added that it cannot itself communicate flight reductions on behalf of a private company.
“Unfortunately, not only did Canadian North have to reduce some of their services, but it’s also unfortunate the communication wasn’t better between airlines and their customers, especially the community of Norman Wells,” McLeod said.
“We have to hope that these new changes will allow Canadian North to become viable and start to build back (post-Covid). At the same time we have to hope that somehow other airlines will fill in the service gap that was left based on some of the changes that Canadian North has made.”
GNWT response
Darren Campbell, media spokesperson for the Department of Infrastructure said on April 28 that the reduction in service to Norman Wells is rooted in lingering “financial hardship” from the Covid-19 pandemic following the merger of First Air and Canadian North in 2019.
New terms and conditions between Transport Canada and Canadian North were announced on April 21 that allowed the merged airline to “remain financially viable and sustainable, while continuing to provide required levels of service to rural and remote communities in Northern Canada.”
NNSL Media also contacted the NWT Health and Social Services Authority (NTHSSA) and asked if the reduction of airline services will affect the health services in the North.
David Maguire, NTHSSA’s manager of communications, said that there are no expected changes to medical travel, however the authority does expect that with fewer flight options, patients may be required to travel to their destination earlier or stay longer depending on appointment dates and flight schedules.
He also said that most times flights for medical travel are coordinated within two weeks of the appointment therefore changes to flight schedules generally have more of an impact on future reservations than existing ones.
“At this time, we do not have any documented cancellations for our clients due to the changes,” he stated.
-with files from Kaicheng Xin