Canadian North is a small airline serving a specific domestic clientele in northern Canada. Yet, it has one of the most fascinating commercial air routes in the world. While Singapore Airlines boasts the world’s longest route, Emirates shows off luxury, and Aeroflot flies obsolete Soviet planes, Canada has an Arctic air link.
Canadian North is in the company of many small Arctic airlines like Air Creebec, Bearskin Airlines, and Air Tindi. But only Canadian North runs a three times weekly service through major northern hubs—the Arctic Capital Express. The route departs Ottawa, makes stops at Iqaluit and Rankin Inlet on opposite sides of Hudson’s Bay, before arriving at Yellowknife where passengers must deplane. Then, it re-boards passengers and continues to Edmonton.
The whole ordeal takes about 12 hours, but it means many Arctic travelers can now connect to Edmonton or Ottawa within 24 hours. Before this service was introduced in 2023, passengers might need to spend extra to stay overnight at Yellowknife or Iqaluit before onward travel. It’s analogous to the Island Hopper service by United Airlines between Honolulu and Guam.
It’s the most expensive and least convenient flight from Ottawa to Edmonton. The cash fare for my Friday flight was about $2,300, but I booked a domestic partner award with Aeroplan points and redeemed it for 12,500 and $86.6 in taxes. It’s one of the best domestic redemptions in Canada, but redemptions are capped at four seats per flight, so book well in advance.
The flight is operated with a variety of B737 jets including the combi. Some of the seats can be converted into bed space for medical evacuation in case a patient requires advanced treatment in a larger city. The occasional combi flight carries vital supplies to the north as Nunavut is only connected by ice roads in winter to the rest of Canada.
Seat selection aboard Canadian North is free, but you’ll need to call the reservations hotline to get it sorted. Exit rows with extra legroom are also free, I chose seat 12A, which made it the seat with the most legroom on the plane, along with 12F at an exit row. The extra legroom means it’s easy to get to the aisle without disturbing your seat neighbors.
However, after a last-minute equipment swap away from a combi, I was reassigned to exit row seat 11F on a B737-700. Exit row passengers have the luxury of two tray tables—one in the armrest and one on the seat back in front. The flight was empty enough that nobody sat in the middle seat of the three-by-three arrangement. While I had plenty of elbow room, the window side of the emergency exit row is missing a full armrest. The emergency exit handle cover was loose, so it rattly at takeoff and landing.
There are two USB-A ports for every three seats located under the middle armrests at exit and bulkhead rows and one USB-A port per seat at most other rows. Unlike older Air Canada planes, the USB ports work. With a low passenger load, each person could have one port. Without a screen or internet, the only in-flight entertainment is the bi-monthly Up Here magazine in the seat back pocket. I thought it was a smart move to buy an existing regional magazine rather than to shoulder the expense of a bespoke in-flight magazine.
Another perk of this quirky full-service airline is one free checked bag for all passengers, even those travelling on Aeroplan redemptions and saver fares. I can’t imagine travelling between the territories and the provinces without a checked bag. Higher fare classes and Aurora Rewards status members, Canadian North’s rewards program, can have up to three complimentary checked bags.
Iqaluit and Rankin Inlet airports facilitate unsecured flights within the territories, so passengers boarding at those stations don’t need to go through airport security to board the flight. However, everyone had to get off and pass through security when heading back down to Edmonton.
Canadian North has resumed meal service on its flights in 2022, so each leg of the flight comes with a meal. The Ottawa to Iqaluit leg comes with a hot burrito or cold overnight oats breakfast, the intra-territorial flight to Rankin Inlet had free wine and a turkey and cheese sandwich, the onward flight to Yellowknife was a dinner choice between vegetarian pasta or chicken parmesan, and the final leg to Edmonton was vegetarian ravioli or chicken with scalloped potatoes.
I’ve never eaten four airplane meals in 12 hours in economy. I suspect the standard free meal is because subarctic airports are barebones and without restaurants, so it’s hard to find food during a layover.
I can’t recommend it at $2,300, but I didn’t want to miss out on it for $86.6. I couldn’t even buy four equivalent meals on the ground for that money.
