Doug Ashbury
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Nov 24/99) - We may call it the Yellowknife airport, but it's really a hub for all the NWT and points beyond, says Tom Cook, the airport's manager.

"We're putting about 250,000 to 260,000 people through the airport a year," Cook said. That's likely double all other NWT airports combined, he added.

"We're a consolidation point, we are the hub for the NWT."

The Yellowknife airport can handle the biggest of passenger aircraft -- even a monster C5A cargo plane can land in Yellowknife.

"We serve the economic hinterland. Cargo comes into Yellowknife by truck then it's dispersed by airlines to the various communities."

Cook also said traffic -- people and cargo -- has not declined as much as thought would be the case with the creation of Nunavut.

In the long term, there may be a decline, he speculated, but for now, the connections remain.

"The personal and business relationships remain," he said.

Kelly Kaylo, marketing and sales director at Canadian North, said Yellowknife has become more of a centre for other NWT communities to buy goods and services from.

It's partly cargo and partly people, she said.

"Yellowknife has become a destination unto itself," she said. As opposed exclusively acting as a gateway for goods and services and people passing through Yellowknife from, say Edmonton.

"A lot of passengers are coming to Yellowknife and staying here to do business."

In the past, she adds, the trend had been for travellers to fly to Yellowknife from outlying communities, or from south of 60, then head on to another destination.

As for volume of cargo and passengers, the numbers continue to grow year over year, she said.

At First Air, Julia Mott, the airline's western region marketing and sales manager, said Yellowknife remains a centre for the movement of cargo.

Flight schedules are often driven by cargo, she said. And it's not just pop and chips.

Everything in Cambridge Bay, for example, including cars, food, clothing and everything else in the stores, got there from Yellowknife, Mott said.

"Expectations are changing. Ten years ago, we had one twin otter flight to Gjoa Haven a week. They would like to see a Hawker Siddely coming in six times a week."

On passenger movements, Mott said the airline has noticed the number of people who are coming to Yellowknife then heading to Nunavut has risen.

Often, Yellowknifers are going to the new territory to help with training in the communities, she said.

Peter Arychuk, co-owner of Air Tindi, said many communities are experiencing population growth. That means they need "more groceries, more mail."

Some communities only have winter roads access which means they rely on air transportation in summer, he said.

As for future business, Arychuk said Yellowknife's civic leaders should be visiting with leaders from other NWT communities to find out how Yellowknife can best serve the needs of these communities.

"We want to make sure people are happy when they come to Yellowknife, so they don't keep on going to Edmonton."

At Beaver Lumber, Chuck Corothers said there has been a big shift in who is buying supplies from his Yellowknife store.

Today, about 40 per cent of the store's revenues are from communities outside Yellowknife.

That's up from just 20 per cent about three years ago.