SOMBA K’E/YELLOWKNIFE
This summer’s heated seat sale introduced by Yukon’s Air North – with prices as low as half off regular rates - has seen the company finally show positive numbers on its direct Yellowknife to Ottawa route.

Flying into the Erik Nielsen Whitehorse International Airport. The Yukon's Air North recently introduced a Whitehorse-Yellowknife-Ottawa route. It is finally showing a turn around after a slow start this earlier this year. - photo courtesy Wickimedia Commons

As recently as this May, Allan Moore, director of commercial development, told News/North that only one flight in three months had paid for itself.

Even taking into account deeply discounted prices, the company has been able to fill enough seats to make the route worth the trouble.

“In rough numbers, based on current market prices, we need to achieve loads of 75 per cent or so,” said founder and president Joseph Sparling.

“June was the first month that the route held its own,” said Sparling. “(In) July and August, we should have positive results.”

“I was pleasantly surprised with the uptake our seat sale got outside of the Yukon.

“Almost 35 per cent of tickets purchased were from outside the Yukon. A significant portion of that was from Yellowknife.”

When Air North launched its Yellowknife routes last February, Sparling thought offering direct Yellowknife to Ottawa flights would be a natural fit, both in terms of Whitehorse market travel and Yellowknife travellers.

Connecting Northern travel hubs to gateways in the south is something Sparling sees as a win for all Northern carriers.

“The main reason we looked at the route was because of the ongoing battle between mainline carriers having a larger presence in the North than we’d like to see them have, from a Northern carrier standpoint.”

“When you put a transportation hub in the North and you’re flying regional routes and gateway routes, the two need to work together,” Sparling added.

Pricing is the bottom-line challenge every airline in the North faces, said Sparling. He sees southern airlines as more interested in capturing Northern travellers before they enter major airports than they are interested in profitable Northern routes.

“Both carriers in our market are happy to sustain losses flying between Whitehorse and Vancouver if they can get the foot traffic into their network,” Sparling said.

Sparling suspects that Yellowknife to Edmonton carriers in the North face a similar challenge.

“All of us (Northern carriers) would be better feeders for the mainline carriers than competitors,” Sparling said.

Government travel

As part of Air North’s strategy when entering the Yellowknife market with direct-to-Ottawa flights, Sparling hoped for strong government uptake for duty travel between the nation’s capital and the two territorial capitals.

“Whitehorse to Ottawa and Yellowknife to Ottawa put together saves time and it saves money,” he said.

But federal and territorial spending has not been where he expected it to be.

“Government travel accounts for 15 per cent of the gateway travel market,” Sparling said. “I’m using the limited stats I have available for the Whitehorse market, so I’m sort of assuming that the statistics would be similar in Yellowknife.”

Air North tracks ticket purchases made by territorial and federal governments. Although the exact numbers are confidential, “I thought the volumes would be a little bigger than they are,” Sparling said.

When Sparling was considering entry into the Yellowknife market, he was concerned about the implications the GNWT’s Business Incentive Program (BIP) could have on his sales to the government.

Air North is not a BIP-qualified vendor. GNWT purchasing requires that government travel select a BIP-qualified airline in a situation where two airlines offer the same flight service.

Sparling was reasonably confident when Air North entered the market that it would be eligible for GNWT purchasing on routes not served by BIP-qualified vendors.

And he was correct, at least according to Peter Vician, deputy minister of Industry, Trade and Tourism.

According to Vician, there’s no reason related to BIP as to why the GNWT would not purchase a direct flight to Ottawa from Air North over a connecting flight from a BIP-qualified vendor.

“I couldn’t reasonably ask someone to fly (Yellowknife- Edmonton-Vancouver-Whitehorse,” Vician said.

Speaking for his own department, Vician said he has approved Whitehorse and Ottawa travel via Air North for his staff.

“Right we don’t have a direct flight to Ottawa except for Air North,” Vician said. “That’s why it’s permissible to book on Air North for that leg.”

Since devolution took effect this April, Vician said government travel between Yellowknife and Ottawa has been curtailed, especially compared to the hectic two years or so prior to devolution.

Although GNWT airline travel to Ottawa may be down this quarter - it’s too early to say for sure, as first quarter ministerial travel reports have yet to be published - general Air North ticket sales in the Yellowknife market so far this summer have lifted the route’s prospects.

“I’m certainly happy with the way the numbers are developing this summer,” Sparling said. “What we need to figure out is: are these (only) summer numbers or are they numbers that are going to stick around for a bit?”