Air North adds Watson Lake, new B.C. destinations to schedule

Air North is flying innew directions.

The Yukon-based airline is starting a scheduled service with stops in Watson Lake, Yukon, Prince George, B.C., and Nanaimo, B.C.

Joe Sparling, Air North president, said the flight will operate once a week on Thursday, starting Oct. 31. It travels northbound in the morning from Vancouver, with stops inNanaimo, Kelowna, Prince George, Watson Lake toWhitehorseand southbound in the afternoon.

Sparling said the company has been flying charters to mines in those added communities since June, including Coeur Mining's Silvertip silver-zinc-lead operation, located just south of the Yukon border.

He said the scheduled flightwill maintain service to that area while helping to fill empty seats.

"We'd always envisioned in working with Coeur[Mining] that ultimately we would sell seats to the public so that Coeur could benefit from some cost savings," said Sparling.

"And so we could offer additional service to some of the existing points ... as well as new points."

According to the Air North website, a one-way flight from Whitehorse to Watson Lake starts at $169 and Whitehorse to Prince George starts at $232.75.

The route will also stop in Kelowna and Vancouver, cities already served by the airline.Sparling said thenew service will not impact currently scheduled flights between Whitehorse, Vancouverand Kelowna.

Alkan Airof Whitehorseused to provide scheduled flights between Whitehorse and Watson Lake butthe airline stopped its twice weekly flights last year due to a lack of passengers using the service.