A big, fat problem’: NWT MLAs call for meeting with struggling small airlines – Northern News Services

April 6, 2020

On March 27, MLAs urged an emergency meeting of NWT airlines to save a crucial link in the Northern supply chain.

Yellowknife Centre MLA Julie Green tabled a motion in the legislative assembly that aims to gather the airlines and resolve how they can continue supplying communities as they face collapsing revenue and passenger loads.

However, the substantial costs required for keeping the airlines afloat would mean the federal government would have to get involved, according to Green.

“That’s just not a sum of money that the territorial government has lying around,” she said, adding that the costs for offering relief to Air Tindi to the end of June alone could outstrip the territory’s resources.

“If you multiply that by all the regional airlines – North-Wright, Northwestern, Aklak – suddenly, you’ve got a big, fat problem,” she said. Canada has “the deep pockets and the territorial government doesn’t.”

Read More: https://nnsl.com/nwtnewsnorth/a-big-fat-problem-nwt-mlas-call-for-meeting-with-struggling-small-airlines/