Good morning from Montreal, Quebec! My name is Alex, and welcome to this special trip report.
Today’s flight is a very exciting one for a couple of reasons. Not only am I flying with Air Inuit,
a new airline for me personally, but I’m headed up north on their Boeing 737-200 Combi!
This’ll be a 2 hour and 40 minute flight heading to just above the 60th parallel,
to a community of 1600 people called Puvirnituq.
In Northern Quebec, Puvirnituq and 13 other villages north of the 55th parallel
make up the region of Nunavik. The vast majority of the 13,000 people who live here are Inuit,
as it’s one of the four Inuit homelands in Canada. There aren’t any roads connecting this
region with the rest of Quebec, and as such, these 14 communities depend on air transport.
Air Inuit is a Quebec airline that mainly serves these communities,
with a diverse fleet of Dash 8s, Twin Otters, King Airs, and of course, Boeing 737s.
At the time of uploading, they have four Boeing 737-200s in the fleet. For Air Inuit’s purposes,
these aircraft are extremely useful for not only being able to carry both passengers and cargo in
a divided cabin, but they also have a gravel kit which allows them to land on unpaved runways.
Since Air Inuit is one of only two operators in Canada who fly commercial scheduled flights
with the 737-200, it was an absolute privilege to be taking this flight today.
For their scheduled flights, Air Inuit normally uses the Aeroquay in Montreal,
which is a smaller satellite terminal that’s directly north of the other domestic gates.
We’ll be leaving from gate 21, and just outside looking as majestic as ever is our aircraft for
today - this 39-year-old Boeing 737-200 Combi, registered as Charlie Golf Sierra Papa Whiskey.
‘SPW’ was first delivered to Pacific Western Airlines in 1981,
and has pretty much stayed in Canada for its entire life. After Pacific Western,
it briefly flew with Eastern Provincial Airways, then back to Pacific Western, then to Canadian
Airlines International, Air Canada, Canadian North, and finally to Air Inuit in 2018.
Even though the type has long since been retired from the major legacy airlines, they’ve found a
niche for themselves operating within Canada’s North. These 737-200s are truly a page out of
aviation history, and being able to fly on one in 2021 is beyond special. Let’s go check it out!
Today’s 737-200 configuration is an interesting one - 5 pallets of
cargo in the front, and just 24 Economy seats in the back.
I’m sitting in 16A, which is effectively the bulkhead row,
with some fantastic legroom and this magnificent view of the wing and engine!
With only 4 rows of seats to fill, boarding didn’t take long at all,
and soon we were on our way to Puvirnituq.
Here’s our departure from Montreal, taking off from runway 06R!
Shortly after that epic departure, the cabin crew came around with water bottles for everyone.
Air Inuit normally serves some food on their flights,
but that’s not happening for now due to current events.
As you’d expect, there’s a tray table which folds out from the armrests,
but only in the bulkhead row.
In the seatback pocket, Air Inuit has a standard air sickness bag, a pamphlet on keeping safe,
and of course the safety card.
This 737-200 also has some classic 737 branding on the window shades.
As we boarded, the gate agent also handed out these Air Inuit protection kits.
Inside is an extra mask, some wipes, and hand sanitizer.
In the back of the aircraft is the one lavatory that’s accessible to passengers
in this configuration. The flight deck crew up front do have access to the usual forward lav, but
I get the feeling Air Inuit doesn’t exactly want passengers walking through the cargo compartment.
With only 20-or so people on board, this 737 felt more like a small regional airliner than,
y’know, a 737. Still, seeing a 737 cabin with just four rows is really interesting.
Of course, the cargo up front is all important. Puvirnituq has one of the longer runways in the
region, at 6,299 feet, so it’s able to support these direct 737 flights from Montreal. In th at
way, it kind of serves as a small cargo hub for these communities along the Hudson Bay coast.
As you can probably tell, these aircraft really are the lifeline of the north.
The further north you go, there’s some truly magnificent scenery to be had,
and although it’s not exactly visible through the clouds right now, I can confirm it is spectacular.
I took this flight not only to fly on a 737-200 again,
but also to explore a bit more of Canada’s North. The intended final destination of this
trip was another town called Kuujjuaq, which is the largest one in Nunavik.
I have a lot more to show you from this trip but I
wanted this video to focus on the 737-200 experience first.
After about two hours or so in the air, we began our descent through the clouds into Puvirnituq.
Here’s our approach and landing on runway 19!
Oh and by the way - did I mention Puvirnituq has a gravel runway?
It’s not every day you land on a gravel runway in a 737! It was so great to fly on
board another 737-200 for the first time since 2019, and I had a wonderful time.
For an aviation enthusiast like myself, these planes really are the closest you can
get to flying back in time, and the fact that they’re still flying in Canada is really cool.
That wind you saw outside would prove to... complicate things later,
but that’s a story for another time!
Thank you so much for watching this special video with Air Inuit!
This was an amazing experience that I’m so thankful I was able to be a part of,
and hopefully you enjoyed it as much as I did filming it. See you next time!