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Baffin chamber to study Greenland air link

“We just want an honest picture of what the potential is.”

JOHN THOMPSON

The streets of Sisimiut in Greenland are paved and clear of garbage, in marked contrast to Iqaluit.

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Greenlandic businesses are interested in importing fresh produce from Ottawa, via Iqaluit. And mining companies operating in Greenland have expressed interest in receiving replacement parts from Canada.

This trade in cargo could help make a flight from Nunavut to Greenland profitable. But airline representatives remain skeptical until they see proof the route would make money.

That’s why the Baffin Regional Chamber of Commerce plans to commission a pre-feasibility study, to be complete by January 2007, which will look at the potential for a flight linking Nunavut, Labrador and Greenland.

“We don’t want it to be flowery. We don’t want it to be negative. We just want an honest picture of what the potential is,” said Hal Timar, BRCC’s executive director.

Timar said past assessments have been flawed because they only took into account the interests from one side of the air link. And the population of Iqaluit has grown since the air link closed in 2001, which means there could now be a larger market.

But Timar said the study is intended to be objective, and if the route doesn’t look profitable, they will say so. “If it’s not viable, so be it.”

Jim Ballingall, a vice president with First Air who visited Greenland for the first time last week, warns that when his company operated the air link until 2001, cargo “was marginal at best.”

He said his company would wait until the BRCC’s report before considering a feasibility study of its own - which means there will be no announcement of First Air reopening the air link soon.

The meeting was reportedly held in Sisimuit, a community of about 6,000, because several Greenlandic companies interested in trade with Nunavut are based there.

But Ballingall said if the route were reopened by First Air, the company would fly to Greenland’s largest community, Nuuk, which has a population of about 17,000, compared to Sisimiut’s population of about 6,000.

“If we’re going to fly anywhere, it’s Nuuk,” said Ballingall.

It’s said First Air began losing money on the air link after it switched its Greenland destination from Nuuk to Kangerlussaq in 1994.

The visitors also paid an unexpected visit on Friday to Ilulissat, a community of about 4,500 that overlooks a majestic ice fiord, where icebergs are regularly disgorged from Greeenland’s ice sheet.

The sight is enough to lure some 20,000 tourists this year, said Kenn Harper, Iqaluit’s honourary Danish consul.

“They say enough ice comes off there every day to meet the needs of New York City for a year, every day, year round,” Harper said.

That means there is likely an untapped North American market, Harper suggests. But if Canada’s northern airlines want to cash in on this, they will have some competition.

This September, Greenlandair announced it will begin a direct flight to the United States, from Baltimore to Nuuk, from May to October, beginning in 2007.

Both governments have signed memorandums of understanding on the importance of cultural exchanges, but Harper said those agreements aren’t worth much if transportation is limited to pricey charter flights.

“You don’t have a healthy link between two places unless the guy on the street can buy a ticket and go.”

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