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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - Airstrips in the Sahtu will have to be extended by December 2010 or air-travellers may be forced to pay more on top of already hefty ticket prices.

In December 2010, a Northern exemption to 1990 regulations specifying minimum airstrip length for certain aircraft will come to an end.

The regulation - set to come into effect in the region in 20 months - requires calculable data on how long each plane needs to stop if there is an emergency at takeoff speed.

Andrew Bailes, a director with North-Wright Airways, said the Beech 99 and Twin Otter aircraft the company operates have never produced the data, adding the flight tests necessary for a Twin Otter would cost around $1 million.

North-Wright is looking to operate a Beech 1900 - a pressurized, 19-passenger plane with washroom facilities.

Bailes said the aircraft requires about 1,341 to 1,371 metres of runway under the regulation.

Currently, Fort Good Hope and Tulita runways are being extended from 914 metres to 1,199 metres, the same length as Deline's strip.

If the company was forced to operate with the smaller nine-passenger aircraft, which can fly under the regulation, ticket prices will likely climb.

"If we are restricted on the loads we can carry, we're still burning the same amount of fuel, we're going the same distance so the only thing we can change is the price of the fee and they're already high enough I think," he said.

Bailes said Sahtu communities do not have the luxury of an all-season road out and rely heavily on air travel.

Norman Yakeleya, Sahtu MLA, has brought up the issue in the legislative assembly in the past and said expanding the runways would translate to lower ticket prices.

"By bringing in a bigger aircraft it would cut down a lot of unnecessary headaches for people in the region," he said.

Bailes said right now, larger aircraft in the Sahtu can only get into Norman Wells.

The exemption had been made to allow Northern infrastructure to catch up, however, that hasn't happened, said Yakeleya.

Merely lengthening runways presents a problem, too.

Bailes said if runways were made any longer than 1,219 metres, airports would be bumped into another code, and construction and maintenance costs would increase exponentially.

"Anything past 4,000 feet and you have to make the runways 30 metres wider," he said, adding airports would have to be moved further away.

However, at last week's Northern Air Transportation Association's annual general meeting Transport Canada said it could grant an additional 150 metres - or nearly 500 feet - to runways without changing the code.

"We finally have got some leeway, where we've found an avenue to get the GNWT to save a bunch of money by putting this additional runway down now," said Bailes.

On Thursday, Michael McLeod announced $6 million over three years for runway extensions already underway in Fort Good Hope, Tulita and Fort McPherson.

"Our assessment has been that all our runways are adequate and safe right now, provided we extend the three, right now," he said, although he added the Transport Canada proposal was good news.

"But we want to firm that up and see if we can get that in writing," he said.

He said the government could then look at what it will cost to extend the runways.

While he said he's heard a great deal of interest from the Sahtu, the department will look at the feasibility of extending runways "across the board."

He said the pitch from the Sahtu that this was an opportunity to reduce the cost of living in those communities was "something we need to take seriously."