Thorunn Howatt
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Sep 09/02) - The goose is flying the coop -- Canadian North's Canada Goose logo, that is.

A polar bear and the midnight sun will soon symbolize the Northern-owned airline, replacing the old bird.

The new look represents the company's move away from its old ways.

"As Air Canada shot more and more of the geese out of the sky, we became orphaned," said Canadian North's president Carmen Loberg. He explained Canadian North once had ties to Air Canada but is now looking to put some air miles between the two companies. It's a move to make Canadian North more independent.

Travellers and booking agents often don't realize Canadian North isn't part of now defunct Canadian Airlines. And sometimes they overlook it in favour of Air Canada.

"We were fiercely disadvantaged," said Loberg.

Air Canada swallowed Canadian nearly two years ago. But Norterra purchased Canadian North. Norterra is jointly owned by the Inuvialuit Development Corporation and Inuit-owned Nunasi Corporation. The joint venture group bought Canadian North in 1999 from Canadian International, which later went bankrupt.

But the company was carrying some bad baggage.

If Canadian North was going to attract customers, it had to make some changes. So over the past year the Yellowknife-based airline introduced a new fare structure based on one-way flights, no-change fees and lower ticket prices. Base ticket prices were lowered all over Nunavut and the NWT. It bought new aircraft and hired its own staff. It has been slowly morphing its identity.

"It was damned well time we changed our look," said Loberg. Now unmarked aircraft with painted, blacked-over tail fins are landing on runways from Iqaluit to Calgary. They are waiting to be covered with the yellow sun, white polar bear and blue Northern lights that are obviously based on artist Dawn Oman's designs. The painter's art also adorns Canadian North's tickets and some advertising campaigns.

The plane-painting campaign should be complete by the end of the year.

Canadian North can use any advantage it can get these days. Since September 11, air travel throughout North America has taken a nose-dive. The company's key competitor, First Air, isn't playing dead while it watches Canadian North's marketing strategy.

"If you noticed today in the papers, they ordered another seat sale," said Loberg.