Counter space tight for Air Canada at Iqaluit airport
Work is underway on a new master plan for the Iqaluit airport, which officials say is handling three times the passenger volume it was designed to accommodate. (CBC)
Air Canada Jazz will not get prime check-in counter space at the Iqaluit airport when it begins flying to and from the northern city in March.
That is because the airport is already crowded as it tries to accommodate three times the number of passengers the terminal was designed to handle.
Airport manager John Graham told CBC News that existing leases with northern airlines First Air and Canadian North means any new space for Air Canada Jazz's counters will have to be established in a different part of the terminal.
Graham said the Jazz counter will be set up in the southwest corner of the terminal, which is currently part of the waiting area.
"It's probably not the best storefront image for Air Canada, but basically [it's] the only free area of space left in the airport terminal building," he said.
Air Canada Jazz will begin flying between Iqaluit, Ottawa and Montreal starting March 28.
First Air spokesman Chris Ferris said his airline is already in cramped airport quarters with Canadian North, so he welcomes the news of not having to share space with the new arrival.
"We're a northern carrier that operates numerous flights daily in and out of that airport, and I would've been much more surprised to see us having to surrender space to a southern carrier that flies in once a day," Ferris said.
Officials with both Canadian North and First Air have complained that Air Canada's expansion into Nunavut will saturate the territory's airline market.
As for the airport facility itself, Graham said the Nunavut government is working on a new airport master plan that he hopes will be released in a few weeks.
