KIVALLIQ/RANKIN INLET
A new deal making Calm Air the principal carrier of the Kivalliq and the Winnipeg-Churchill-Rankin Inlet corridor could pay big dividends to the airline's customers.

Calm Air president David Bell promises travellers on the airline can expect prompt and courteous service from Calm Air customer agents such as Francis Ayaruak, left, Pasha Kaludjak, Lucy Manilak and Suzette David in Rankin Inlet this past week. - Darrell Greer/NNSL photo

The deal sees Calm Air purchase the routes, contracts and ground equipment from First Air in its region.

It will also see Calm Air pay First Air a set amount per hour on a seven-year wet lease to use its 737 400 jet aircraft, which is about 25 years newer than the 737 200 and has more capacity.

The jet will fly the corridor twice a day Sunday through Friday and once on Saturday.

Calm Air is also moving its base of operations from Churchill to Rankin, which will create 12 to 15 additional jobs in cargo handling and customer agents.

Calm Air president Gary Bell said the wheels were actually put in motion a year ago, when the attempted merger between First Air and Canadian North fell apart.

He said the two airlines tried to come to an agreement because they simply weren't making enough money to justify the level of service being provided.

"There was a lot of overlap in their respective networks and a lot of redundant flying," said Bell.

"The populations are so small in the individual communities that you can't justify multiple providers of our type of service.

"Customers don't want to hear that.

"They want choice because they believe the competition will lower prices and provide better service."

After the initial merger fell apart, Calm Air and First Air began a dialogue, realizing the failed merger didn't change the fact there was too much capacity in the markets and too much wing-tip-to-wing-tip flying.

They began to discuss the situation in the Kivalliq, realising it made no sense for both to stay.

Bell said the two competitors didn't have to tell each other they weren't doing well because they could count how many people were getting onto each other's planes.

He said you didn't have to be a brilliant economist to figure it out.

"First Air knew we had it beat on turbo-prop flying.

"We both had the same aircraft and configuration in hauling both passengers and freight.

"They knew Calm Air is a good cargo carrier and is doing a good job with all the cargo business, including Northwest and Co-op, so they weren't going to win."

But, at the same time, Calm Air had a problem with its Dornier 328 jet, which was far from ideal for the corridor because it couldn't haul cargo or an acceptable number of passengers to be successful.

The 737 has more capacity and can also haul all the freight in the corridor.

Bell said the 737 gives Calm Air 72 seats and a very large cargo configuration.

He said it can take 22,000 pounds of cargo, plus the aircraft's belly can take an additional 10,000 pounds.

"We'll still have slow-moving freight going through Churchill like pop, snowmobiles and appliances, but anything that has a time associated with it - produce, frozen product, cooler product, milk, bread, eggs - will go on the 737 out of Winnipeg now.

"So customers will now get time-sensitive food product three-days sooner which, long term, should result in lower prices.

"Having our base in the new hangar built by Sakku Investments allows us to do our line maintenance inside, giving us a better ability to fix things.

"And, in the mornings, we'll take our plane out of a nice warm hangar instead of putting people into a plane that's been out freezing all night."

Bell said Calm Air will have four aircraft in Rankin to do the job of three, meaning a plane will be available to take the place of another that goes mechanical or has a problem with its crew.

He said connection times into Rankin will be about an hour, and the amount of time spent on the plane will be less because flights in the corridor will be either non-stop or one-stop flights.

"Repulse Bay and Coral Harbour are the big winners because they get more frequencies of flights, while Whale Cove and Chesterfield Inlet stay even with frequencies, but will now have a bunch of direct flights.

"Baker Lake will stay about the same or a bit less.

"The new schedule is a home run that provides better connections to the customer and less time on airplanes and in airports, and we're able to get time-sensitive product into the Kivalliq sooner."

Bell said Calm Air took possession of the Rankin hangar on June 1.

He said July 2 is set as the implementation date for the two 737 flights per day to begin, the four aircraft to be based in Rankin and the new schedule to come into affect.

"The whole model and idea of doing this is about cost reduction, not revenue increasing.

"We're not planning to increase our fare levels or freight cost, and we wrote a letter to the Kivalliq Inuit Association to that affect.

"We plan on keeping our fares the same and have no intentions of increasing them."

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