Air North adds jet, reduces flights on Old Crow route for 2 weeks

Travellers flying the northern route on Air North are in for a rather large but possibly less convenient surprise this month.

Starting today and for the next two weeks, the Hawker Siddeley748 used on the route between Whitehorse and Old Crowwill be replaced by one of the airline's Boeing 737 jets.

Joe Sparling, president of Air North, says the larger jetwill help ease the holiday rush over the next two weeks.

"We normally have a bit of an uptick in passenger and cargo volumes on all of the routes before Christmas," he says. "We think it [the 737] will look after all of the passengers and all of the freight during the pre-Christmas rush."

The bigger plane comes with a catch: service to Dawson City, Old Crow and Inuvik from Whitehorseis normally provided six days a week, but that's beingcut in half while the larger aircraft is in use.

Service on this route will be Monday, Wednesday and Friday until Dec. 18.