Canadian North is the largest airline in Northern Canada, and there’s been quite a bit of
change there in recent weeks.
Not only did they retire one of their two remaining Boeing 737-200 Combis, but they’ve
officially changed their callsign, from “Empress”, to “Arctic” as they finalize their merger
with First Air.
One less-publicized change in the last few months though has been the quiet addition
of two Next Generation Boeing 737-700s to the fleet.
At the time of uploading, these two aircraft are parked in Edmonton, Alberta.
These two 737-700s are registered as C-FHBO and C-FHNI,
and were previously operated by WestJet.
They’ve been given fleet numbers 701 and 702, respectively,
and are both around 16 years old.
These two aircraft flew their last flights for WestJet towards the end of 2020, were
flown to Kelowna for refitting and repainting, and then flown to Edmonton in February, where
they’ve sat since.
It’s not clear why these Canadian North ones haven’t flown yet, but that could be
due to anything from red tape to training.
Now this addition is notable for a couple of reasons.
For quite a few years now, Canadian North has only operated the 737-200s and 737-300s.
During the merger with First Air, several 737-400s have since joined the combined fleet,
but 737NGs are a different story.
Not only are they more efficient than their Classic counterparts, but the 737 Next Generation
has a greater range - something which Canadian North plans to take advantage of.
Back in December, Canadian North and Air Greenland announced that they had signed a letter of
intent committing them to “further [investigating] partnership opportunities for air service
development and sustainable tourism between Greenland and North America.”
According to Canadian North’s Executive Chairman, they’re looking at partnering
on through flights from Ottawa to Iqaluit to Nuuk and Ilulissat in Greenland.
They’d also like to, and I quote, “connect Greenland directly with southern Canada, possibly
via Toronto during the tourism season”.
In any case, this is a big step towards modernizing Canadian North’s fleet.
Their 737-300s and 737-400s average 22 and 28 years old, respectively, so adding a newer
type like the 737NG would help them stay competitive,
especially on the routes that Air Canada and WestJet also fly.
Canadian North also does a lot of charter work, and a large part of their operations
in Alberta are for workforce transportation to the oil sands.
Newer aircraft would let them reduce costs there as well.
It’s also worth mentioning that fellow Northern Canadian airline, Air North of the Yukon Territory,
also flies 737 Classics, in the form of four 737-500s and a single 737-400.
Those 737s average 28 years of age.
In a February 2020 message from Air North’s president, an “upgrade to [their] jet fleet
[was] on the horizon”.
In that message, the economics of their existing 737s were compared with a “new generation
jet” with around 160 seats.
According to Air North, the goal at the time was to complete this fleet renewal by 2023,
but there hasn’t been any mention of that since then.
There’s also been a few changes when it comes to WestJet’s fleet
in the last few months.
With the return of the 737 MAXs to service, most of the 737-600s have been flown to Arizona,
and it’s not totally clear if they’ll ever return to service.
Along with that, a number of 737-700s have also left the fleet, likely as lease returns.
It’s no secret that the pandemic has left airlines with quite the surplus of aircraft.
In that way, this does seem like a good opportunity for Canada’s northern airlines to modernize
their fleets, and I do wonder if a few more WestJet planes may join these two flying up north.
I’m looking forward to seeing these former WestJet 737s get a new lease on life,
quite literally, and hopefully they’ll start operating for Canadian North very soon.
For now, I’ll just say thank you very much for watching, and see you in the next one!