First Air adds Edmonton to Yellowknife flights
Demand from government, business and tourism prompted increase
Karen K. Ho
Northern News Services
Wednesday, April 1, 2015
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
The price of oil and the Canadian dollar may be down, but demand for flights to Yellowknife is up.
First Air announced it is increasing the number of flights from Edmonton from six per week to nine, with an additional flight on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays. The change goes into effect on June 1 and will apply year-round beyond the summer tourism season.
First Air's vice president of commercial affairs, Bert van Der Stege said discussion about adding the new routes started two or three months ago. While consumer tourism to Yellowknife is growing, van de Stege said the new flights will mainly target business and government travellers.
"Customers were asking us to do this," he told Yellowknifer, adding the company was also receiving requests from large corporations, travel agents and the general public.
"Especially because of the current economic challenges in Alberta, people were expecting airlines to withdraw services rather than expand."
The new routes will offer one passenger class, First Air's "high-end economy" or what's commonly known in the industry as "economy plus." The configuration on the Edmonton-Yellowknife route will mean a capacity of 115 seats per aircraft.
The city's connection to Hay River and Edmonton by road also meant First Air's Yellowknife operations were able to benefit from fuel prices that were adjusted with the recent crash in crude oil.
Earlier this year, WestJet also announced they would be adding an extra direct flight between Yellowknife and Calgary starting May 3. However, van de Stege explained that First Air's new routes would be available year-round, compared to WestJet's seasonal addition that will end Oct. 24. First Air also aims to operate the new flights using the larger Boeing 737 aircraft.
"This is a pretty significant investment from our side," said van Der Stege.
With the new flights and the airline's expansion of up to 10 new aircraft, First Air expects to hire additional staff in Yellowknife and economic benefits extending to other parts of the city.
"We absolutely hope to foster tourism development and business development," he said, singling out the mining industry in particular. "We are confident that local businesses will see the impact of the extra seats on this route."
