SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - As a Summit Air Dornier 228 turboprop passenger plane descended into Yellowknife Tuesday evening, two freshly-painted letters covering up the usual blue cursive of the Summit Air's logo across its side acted as symbols of triumph over tough times.

Summit Air president Dave Mathieson leans outside the pilot door of the aircraft his company will be using in Ivory Coast with the United Nation's World Food Program. May 25, 2011. - Thandiwe Vela/NNSL photo

The bold black letters U-N on the craft's tail spelled out just how the Yellowknife carrier emerged from layoffs and cutbacks in the face of a slowing domestic economy, to securing lucrative contracts internationally.

"With the slowdown of 2009, we knew we had to look elsewhere to find business," Summit Air president and chief pilot Dave Mathieson said, after landing the craft in Yellowknife as it returned from Chilliwack, B.C., where it was made-over for the airline's new contract with the United Nation's World Food Program in west Africa.

Summit Air was forced to lay off staff across the board in January 2009, when mine exploration work slowed across the territories. The layoffs were to be temporary as Mathieson hit the phones, pushing for contracts abroad.

"It was hundreds of e-mails and phone calls," Mathieson said. "It took a lot of work but finally we're seeing the fruits of our labour."

A trio of UN team members travelled to Yellowknife from Italy in January, for a four-day pass-or-fail audit of the airliner's operations. Summit Air met the UN standards and it was signed up for a six-month WFP tour operating out of Abidjan, in Ivory Coast.

"They have really high standards," Summit pilot and director of maintenance Myles Cane said. "You're either up to their standards or not."

Elevated maintenance regulations were applied due to the heat and large dust levels in the African environment, Cane added, and the craft's engines and propellers were replaced, along with a full maintenance check to make sure it will not require overhaul or major maintenance over the next six months in Abidjan.

All those laid off during the slowdown were offered their jobs back before the company, new contracts in hand, started hiring again, according to Mathieson. Some, however, had already found employment.

Three Summit crew members will leave Yellowknife Saturday, for a three-day trip through Iqaluit, Greenland, Iceland, Ireland, France, and the Canary Islands, arriving in the Ivory Coast to begin their contract on June 1. The humanitarian mission will see the Yk crew flying doctors, relief workers, food and aid supplies across the region.

Summit is also starting a six-month project in South America, its second contract with the Carnegie Airborne Observatory since its carbon mapping mission in the Colombian Amazon jungle started in January, with the United Nations' Reduce Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD) program.

The carrier's push for global contracts started five years ago, Mathieson said, when he first joined the company as president. The international contracts are "very lucrative" Mathieson said, although he declined disclosure of the exact value, citing confidentiality.

The contracts also provide diversity for his staff, Mathieson said, so they're "not doing the same thing over and over.

"It gives the staff more choices. They can work in Yellowknife, work on the east coast of Canada, in South America or Africa," Mathieson said.

The airliner is also expanding operations in the North, adding a fourth craft to its base in Iqaluit, which was opened last spring due to potential for growth in Nunavut, Mathieson said.

Even as the airline rebounds locally, Mathieson plans to continue pushing for more international contracts.

"It's nice to be able to represent Yellowknife and Canada around the world," Mathieson said. "It's a big honour."

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