First Air gets mine deal

First Air's director of sales Mike Olson, front row right, sits next to Paul Villeneuve, AMEC logistics co-ordinator, on a 737 flight to Snap Lake. At back, from left, are flight attendants Michelyn Lockman and Tatiana Rutherford, Capt. Gord Chenkie, flight attendant Trish Lane, Stu Impett, First Air's manager of Hercules and charter operations, and De Beers Canada vice-president John McConnell. - photo courtesy of De Beers Canada

First Air gets mine deal

Sydney Selvon
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Jan 18/06) - A contract for weekly Boeing 737 service to and from De Beers' Snap Lake mine has been awarded to First Air. From one flight a week, the service will be expanded to twice weekly around June, with the contract continuing until September 2007.

The Snap Lake project is approximately 200 km northeast of Yellowknife.

"This is a jet service direct from Edmonton to Snap Lake," said Cathie Bolstad, manager of public and corporate affairs at De Beers. "The contract was awarded to First Air, a company that is 100 per cent owned by the Aboriginal people."

The contract is further proof of De Beers commitment to ensuring Northern aboriginal businesses benefit from the construction and operation of what will become the NWT's third diamond mine, she added.

There is "flexibility" in the contract and there may eventually be stops between Edmonton and Snap Lake, said Mike Olson, First Air's director of sales. The deal also allows the airline to change the set-up of the plane depending on passenger and cargo needs.

"It's going to be a combination configuration. Our aircraft can go from 115 passengers down to zero passengers," he said. "That's the flexibility we have with this combi-type of aircraft. Most of the time passengers will probably fill all 115 seats, or it could be 76 seats plus cargo."

First Air was one of five companies invited by De Beers to submit bids.

"First Air's bid was the most competitive," said Bolstad.

She also pointed out that First Air continues to provide three weekly flights between Yellowknife and the Snap Lake site.

"They provided that service to us during all of last year. That ensures we are employing Northern people, NWT people," she said.

"We have a commitment to employ 40 per cent NWT residents and those three flights are continuing to ensure we are bringing NWT residents in as well."

As for procurement, Bolstad provided the latest update of the money spent by De Beers. As of Dec. 15, 2005, a total of $144 million had been spent on Snap Lake. Of that, 58 per cent or $84 million, went to NWT businesses.

"From that expenditure in NWT, $62.4 million has been spent with Northern aboriginal businesses," Bolstad said.