Yukon airline to fly Olympic torch across North

Air North will be flying the Olympic flame to more than 20 communities in northern Canada starting next week.

The Whitehorse-based airline is scheduled to transport the Olympic torch and its handlers across the North over a 10-day period starting Monday.

Air North will take the torch to all three territories, as well as northern communities in Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Quebec, and Newfoundland and Labrador.

Air North successfully bid for the Olympic contract last year and had to obtain special government clearance to transport the torch, which must remain lit at all times, president and CEO Joe Sparling told CBC News.

"There are special approvals that Transport [Canada] gives for the transportation of the torch, and it has to handled in a particular approved fashion," he said.

Sparling said security is a major factor, but added that RCMP and Olympic officials are taking care of that.

The flame was lit on Oct. 22 in Olympia, Greece.

The Canadian torch relay begins Friday in Victoria, moving up British Columbia to Comox, B.C., where the Air North crew will pick it up and start the next leg of the relay, which consists of stops in:

• Nov. 3 - Sandspit, Skidegate, Queen Charlotte, Taku River and Atlin, B.C., and Whitehorse, Yukon.
• Nov. 4 - Dawson City and Old Crow, Yukon, and Inuvik, N.W.T.
• Nov. 5 - Yellowknife, Dettah and N'dilo, N.W.T., and Kugluktuk, Nunavut.
• Nov. 6 - Grande Prairie, Fort McMurray and Cold Lake, Alta.
• Nov. 7 - La Ronge, Sask., and Thompson, Man.
• Nov. 8 - Churchill, Man., and Canadian Force Station Alert, Nunavut.
• Nov. 9 - Grise Fiord, Resolute, and Iqaluit, Nunavut.
• Nov. 10 - Kuujjuaq, Gaspe, Uashat Mak Man-Utenam and Sept-Iles, Que.
• Nov. 11 - Wabush, Labrador City, CFB Goose Bay, Sheshatshiu, North West River and Happy Valley-Goose Bay, N.L.
• Nov. 12 - Hopedale, L'Anse aux Meadows and St. Anthony, N.L.

It will hand off the OIympic torch in St. John's, N.L., on Nov. 13. The torch will arrive in Vancouver on Feb. 12, 2010, for the opening ceremonies of the Winter Olympics.

Sparling said some of the communities Air North will fly to are so small that its Boeing 737 jet will not be able to land. The torch will have to be transferred to smaller aircraft before going to those communities, he said.

However, Sparling said the jet will touch down in Dawson City and Old Crow, marking a first for the airline.

"They just, this fall, completed some runway and ramp improvements to make Old Crow and Dawson both jet-capable," he said.

Sparling said Air North is now looking at introducing jet flights to both communities on Mondays and Fridays during the peak summer season.