As Northwestern Air Lease scales back operations, residents share gratitude and well-wishes

Brittany Scott still remembers the day Northwestern Air Lease saved Christmas.

"I was flying home from Calgary ... We kept seeing our flight getting delayed more and more, and we kind of realized, oh, we're not going to make the connection from Edmonton to Fort Smith," she recalled.

It was Dec. 23, 2011 — a Friday. The next flight to Fort Smith, N.W.T., wouldn't be until after Christmas. In university at the time, Scott and her fellow Fort Smith students faced the spectre of spending the holiday in an Edmonton hotel room.

"I think someone's mom called Brian Harrold and explained the situation, and was like, 'I know it's a big ask, but can you hold the flight back maybe an hour or two?'"

No problem, said Brian, the company's current vice-president and son of founder Terry Harrold.

"I always think about that, as such a small-town, northern thing," Scott said. "You're not going to get that level of service anywhere else, right?"

Scott and other Fort Smith residents say they were saddened to hear the airline's announcement Wednesday that it would be ending scheduled flights as of Jan. 16.

The airline — a longtime family-run business and the only airline operating in Fort Smith, N.W.T. — made the announcement after weeks of flight cancellations due to a pilot shortage and weather challenges. Earlier in December, Terry Harrold said the airline was trying to keep a regular schedule but has found it challenging.

"It's just been a kind of culmination of things," Brian told CBC News on Wednesday. He said staffing was the big issue, making it hard to maintain a regular schedule.

"And you know, I'm no spring chicken anymore ... so it was just, it was about time."

Air Tindi may take over scheduled flight service

The airline isn't fully shutting down, however. Brian says it will still be operating its Cessna, which it uses for charter flights. The company has contracts with the territorial government for things such as wildfire smoke patrols in the summer and fuel delivery.

Brian says that Air Tindi could be stepping into the service gap. He said Northwestern Air Lease is in talks with that company to take over the scheduled flight service.

"We're just we're in consultations now, just trying to get things worked out," he said.

Brian said some of his staff may go work for Air Tindi while others will have to find work elsewhere. He says Northwestern Air Lease will be "quite a bit smaller of an operation."

For Jeannie Marie-Jewell, the airline was her mode of travel when she served as Thebacha MLA. She said Northwestern Air Lease and the Harrold family were also known for their community spirit, helping out wherever and whenever they could.

"It's been such an icon in our community," she said.

"They've been extremely generous. They're a business that really displays a lot of compassion toward the community — they live here and they raised their family here, their grandchildren.

"I wish them well, I wish their families well, and I wish them many blessings throughout the years to come."

The airline has been operating in Fort Smith since 1965.