Air Tindi planning its service for Fort Smith, N.W.T., once Northwestern Air Lease scales back

Air Tindi is in the process of adding flights to and from Fort Smith, N.W.T., as the community's only airline scales back its service. 

Chris Reynolds, president of Air Tindi, said the company already had plans to expand services to the community to help out Northwestern Air Lease. 

But when they found out last week that Northwestern Air Lease would no longer be offering scheduled service past Jan. 15, those plans were accelerated.

Reynolds said they will be providing flights to Fort Smith with both their own aircraft and third-party aircraft.

He says they'll announce how passengers can book flights in the new year. 

Reynolds says the plan is for part of the week to fly from Edmonton, Fort Chipewyan, Fort Smith and Yellowknife. The other part of the week, they'll have direct flights between Yellowknife and Fort Smith. 

Reynolds said the company plans to add two Dash 8 aircraft to their fleet, a larger aircraft that is capable of carrying 37 passengers and will have a flight attendant and lavatory service.   

Reynolds wrote in an email that they will be running it most often in a 28-seat configuration "to allow for extra cargo room."

He said they're targeting the spring to add Dash 8 service, but it requires significant approvals which Transport Canada is assisting with. 

Reynolds said that Air Tindi's vision is to connect the South Slave "with northern and southern hubs."

"First week of January, probably we'll head to all the communities that Fort Smith serviced and we'll meet with the community leaders, Indigenous leadership as well and just try and see what we can fit in for a schedule with the aircraft and flight crew requirements," Reynolds said.

"And what the community needs as well, do some consultation and hopefully it aligns."

Reynolds said the company has been talking with Northwestern Air Lease "for quite a while" on how they can assist with the issues the company is facing.   

"It's very challenging to find, you know, flight crews and aircraft maintenance engineers. During COVID, the industry wasn't treated very well. You know all unnecessary travel was stopped and it wasn't a great career choice," he said. 

"So a bunch of people retired and ... younger people decided not to take on aviation as a career. And in return, we're facing the consequences of that now."

Northwestern Air Lease isn't closing down, it plans to still offer charter flights.