Jet service to Nunavut community to end as Canadian North retires last jet that can land on gravel | 24CA News
This spring, Canadian North airline will retire the final jet of their fleet that may land safely on Cambridge Bay’s gravel runway.
For years, the group of about 1,800 has been served by a Boeing 737-200 sequence jet.
On April 1, 2023, the corporate is planning to section out the jet and change it with smaller turbo-prop airplanes.
Canadian North’s CEO Michael Rodyniuk instructed CBC it’s merely turning into too exhausting and costly to keep up the decades-old plane.
“That aircraft was manufactured in the 1980s and … useful life for an aircraft typically is 15-20 years. We’ve stretched this one out to 40 years,” he mentioned.
“Understandably, the community would prefer that we keep the jet on the market, and we would love to be able to do that, it’s just that the world has moved on from gravel runways, and with Cambridge Bay using a gravel runway we have to use equipment that will fly in to that type of environment.”
The firm mentioned it is going to change the outdated jet with two ATR 72-500 sequence plane.
Cambridge Bay MLA Pamela Gross says it is going to be a giant change for the small Arctic group.
“Going into using the ATR will affect how many people are able to come in and out of the community and how much cargo as well can be brought back and forth,” she mentioned.
‘A continuing upkeep subject’
Cambridge Bay, a regional hub in western Nunavut, is not the one group within the territory that has issues with airport infrastructure.
Glenn Priestley is the manager director of the Northern Air Transport Association, an group that represents air carriers in Canada’s North.
He says that solely 11 airports in Canada’s territories are paved, with solely two of them in Nunavut.
“Gravel runway damage is a constant maintenance issue,” Priestley mentioned.
“It’s not just the runway, though. It’s also the approach lighting, it’s also the infrastructure, the airport and the terminals … is a challenge across the North.”
However, modernizing runways would require main investments.
Priestley mentioned he did not understand how a lot a venture like paving the runway in Cambridge Bay would price, however that comparable tasks tended to be “in the millions.”
For Gross, discovering the cash to enhance the runway is a precedence.
She instructed CBC she spoke to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau about modernizing the runway when he visited Cambridge Bay final August and is organizing conferences now to speak with federal ministers about potential sources of funding for the venture.
“It’s going to be very hard for our community to not have jet service but I’m hopeful that we will be able to find funds from the federal government in the near future to support the need.”
