SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Passengers flying to Northern communities from Yellowknife should be prepared to show up earlier than usual to allow for additional security screening.

Canadian North is telling passengers flying to Northern communities to show up early for flights due to additional security checks. - NNSL file photo

Ever since Air North started offering flights from Yellowknife to Ottawa and Whitehorse on Mondays, Thursdays and Sundays, passengers flying to Northern communities on those days have had to go through additional security checks.

While passengers flying on smaller planes to other locations in the NWT are not legally required to have the contents of their bags checked, federal regulation dictate that all passengers traveling to southern cities must go through a security screening process.

Although the passengers are subject to different regulations, Earl Blacklock, communications manager for the Department of Transportation, said the airport has only been opening a single gate to check in passengers for flights, which includes flights to both airports in the south and throughout the North.

According to the regulations set by Canadian Air Transport Security Authority (CATSA), passengers who have been subject to a security check cannot be allowed to mix with unscreened ones. Blacklock said that with only one gate in operation, all passengers must go through the same process.

“The area that is glassed in is a secure area and no one can go in there unless they are screened,” said Blacklock.

Blacklock said the airport has offered airlines flying to Northern communities the opportunity to open a separate gate so that passengers could avoid security checks -- however no one has yet to take it up on the offer.

Scott Weatherall, communications manager for Canadian North -- which has flights leaving at the same time as Air North's southern flights -- said the company does not want to use the gate because the airport has not provided a computer to check in passengers.

“It's not an adequate gate,” he said. “When we have 100 passengers, we're not going to be doing it with a clipboard.”

Blacklock said the airport lets airlines use the secure area if no one else is using it as a courtesy.

“The airlines have the option to have their passengers go into another area. The decision they have made is to have their passengers go through the secure area,” said Blacklock.

Weatherall said the airline is currently working with the airport to resolve the issue, but have yet to come to an understanding.

He added that CATSA, which runs the security at the airport, has only been operating one of its two possible scanning machines, thus slowing down the screening process even further.

“They have two pieces of machinery, but they only used one,” said Weatherall.

He said that if the security screening process was operating at full capacity, it would help alleviate some of the delays.

“We're not pointing fingers at any one at this point. We're just saying we need to work it out between the airlines, CATSA and the airport,” said Weatherall.

In the meantime, Weatherall suggested that passengers flying out of Yellowknife on Mondays, Thursdays and Sundays – the days where Air North flies to Whitehorse and Ottawa – arrive earlier than usual.

Representatives from CATSA did not return a request for comment by press time.