Canadian North Airlines to stop Yellowknife-Calgary service from October 10, 2009; to cut flights to Hay River, Edmonton

Canadian North Airlines, based in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Canada, has announced that it is cancelling flights on some routes and reducing the number of flights on some others owing to what it calls “a saturated market in Yellowknife.”

The airline will cancel its flights between Yellowknife (the city with a population of about 20,000 people) and Calgary from October 10, 2009, and cut the number of services to Hay River in Northwest Territories with effect from October 25, 2009.

Canadian North Airlines said it also will reduce the number of flights between Yellowknife and Edmonton on October 25, 2009, citing as reason the competition from WestJet Airlines and Air Canada Jazz, both of which operate discount-fare services on the same route.

Canadian North Airlines Flight 423, which flies 5 times a week in the mornings from Yellowknife to Edmonton, will come to an end on October 25, 2009. The number of flights from Edmonton to Yellowknife (Flight 422) will be cut from 6 flights a week in the evenings to 5 flights a week in the evenings.

Canadian North Airlines’ customers who could be affected by cancellations of the fights have been requested to call the airline at 1-800-661-1505.

In a statement, the airline said it would get in touch with the customers who have already booked tickets on the cancelled flights – they could either book on alternative flights or get a refund.

Canadian North Airlines said 5 of it employees in Hay River will lose jobs as the carrier closes down its base there. In addition, more employees will be laid off in Yellowknife.

Air Canada Jazz launched flights to and from Yellowknife, the capital of Northwest Territories, in 2006, offering non-stop services between Yellowknife and Edmonton and between Yellowknife and Calgary. WestJet Airlines started services on the same routes later.

Tracy Medve, president of Canadian North, told CBC News that the airline decided to end the Yellowknife-Calgary service on account of a slump in the oil and gas industry. As for stopping the flights to Hay River, the reason that Tracy Medve cited was insufficient number of passengers on that route.

These changes, Medve added, will “ensure the continued growth and profitability of Canadian North Airlines even while not compromising the carrier’s entire service.”

Canadian North Airlines, founded in 1989, is Canada’s premier carrier that serves the communities in the north. It flies to Nunavut and the Northwest Territories from Ottawa, Edmonton and Calgary.

WestJet Airlines and Air Canada Jazz, Tracy Medve told CBC News, “flooded the Yellowknife’s aviation the market with “excess capacity,” which made Yellowknife “unsustainable” for the total northern service network of Canadian North Airlines.

Canadian North Airlines, a member of the NorTerra group of companies, is owned by the Inuit of Nunavut through Nunasi Corporation and the Inuvialuit Development Corporation.