First Air, Canadian North codeshare changes, reversals perplex passengers

The codeshare agreement between the two major airlines flying in Nunavut continues to perplex passengers, with the latest point of contention being aquiet reversal of changes to the Iqaluit-Ottawa flight schedule.

Canadian North and First Airannounced in May they would begin"codesharing" some routes this summer, selling seats and cargo space on the other airline's flights.

As one of a number of schedulechanges, the airlinesseparated their Iqaluit-Ottawadeparture times so their flights would no longer be leaving within minutes of each other on that route.

First Airwas to keep its flights leaving Ottawa at 9:15 a.m.andIqaluit at 1:45 p.m., whileCanadian North would move its flights to leave Ottawa at 12:45 p.m. and Iqaluit at 5 p.m.

But on Tuesday, they went back to the old doubled-upschedules.

JoslynCouture, who works throughoutNunavut,says he is confused by the wholecodeshareagreement.

"I was booked with First Air, then I was supposed to take Friday afternoon late, then I'm back with Canadian North and I was reading about thecodesharingon the plane. It's confusing."

This summer, both airlines also introduced new fees onbeneficiary fares, which are special reduced rates for beneficiaries of land claim agreements of the Inuit groups that own each airline.

Iqaluitresident Joanna Awa says she bought aPivutfare ticket from Canadian North. When she tried to change the departure date she was told she could only re-book on that airline,even though she was scheduled to leave on First Air.

Awa did eventually persuade Canadian North to refund her normally non-refundable ticket. but she says she worries others won't be so lucky.

"If there are going to be so many limitations placed onPivutfares or beneficiary fares there needs to be at least some kind of public education," she says,"because if I didn't take action I don't think it would have been resolved."

First Air refused an interview about codeshare concerns,saying customers with complaints should come to them. A representative from Canadian North was not immediately available for comment.