NATA marks four decades as the voice of northern aviation in Canada

On March 15, 1977, representatives from a group of like-minded northern air carriers met in Yellowknife, N.W.T., to discuss common challenges. The group, which called itself the Northern Air Transport Association (NATA), was determined to convey its concerns to Transport Canada and policymakers in Ottawa with one united voice.

With Bob Engle elected as its first president, NATA set out to address a laundry list of challenges confronted by remote operators flying north of 60. Guided by the ever-present goal of achieving safer operations in the North, NATA concentrated on issues such as improving airport environments through runway maintenance and better navigational aids, along with more accurate weather reporting.

Fast forward to 2016, and it’s safe to say that the more things change, the more they stay the same. NATA now includes about 40 operator members from coast to coast to coast, because as executive director Stephen Nourse puts it, “Northern aviation in Canada isn’t a nice bright line at 60 north. Northern Quebec, northern Saskatchewan, and northern Manitoba are every bit as remote, or even more remote, than parts of the Northwest Territories.” 

This April, the NATA membership—which also includes 40 associates and 10 affiliates in addition to the operators—will be gathering in Whitehorse, Yukon, to celebrate the association’s 40th annual general meeting and conference. Today, the group’s to-do list looks remarkably similar to that original list. Much progress has been made; however, many similar challenges remain. But although the issues haven’t changed much, NATA’s approach to addressing them has certainly evolved. 

“In the early days, the association spent a lot of time working with territorial airports and governments. The other aspect was discussing regulations with Transport Canada,” said Nourse. “Those two core aspects are still there; of course, Nav Canada is now in the mix. But we’ve shifted to a much more proactive approach. We’re far more involved in the policy side of things now. Hopefully, if you get the policy right, then the regulations that follow will be better.”

Assisted by Colin Dempsey, who mans the NATA head office in Yellowknife, Nourse—who is based from a home office in Ottawa—spends his time in the capital educating regulators and other stakeholders about the realities of aerial operations in the North. He aims to “get in on the ground floor” when it comes to policy discussions, so NATA participates in working groups that study unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and performance-based navigation, among other emerging issues.

The association prides itself on being the collective voice of the northern operator. 

“The communities we serve are hugely dependent on air,” explained Nourse. “We provide the only year-round transportation service—and in some cases, it’s the only service. So we’re the local bus, the grocery truck, the ambulance. If you load additional regulatory burden and costs on operators, it has a drastic impact.”

There are about 100 airports across Canada’s three northern territories, and yet only 10 have paved runways.  

“What’s happened is that the world has moved on,” said Nourse. “There is a tremendous amount of gravel runways across Canada, and the reality is that there are less and less aircraft that can properly operate off gravel. Yes, the ATRs and Dash 8s can do it, but it adds a whole swirl of costs in propellers, tires, flap damage, and belly damage, and that all gets passed along.”

Nourse added that the cost of constructing a paved runway in the North is prohibitive, but so is the time it takes to do the job. “You’re talking a three-year construction cycle,” he explained. “There are no roads, so you have to barge the equipment in the year before, use the (short) construction season to try to get the work done, and possibly go into the next season. So, your equipment and money is tied up for three years for two months work!”

Plus, once a runway is paved and the equipment leaves, how can airports repair any holes or damage due to heaving ground? The short answer is, they can’t. 

“We think there are some alternate pavements that have some potential,” said Nourse. “Chip seal, for example, is what is used on rural roads. It’s a couple of layers of sealed gravel compacted with a roller. It’s much lower in cost, easier to fix, and requires no specialized equipment. But, it’s not certified as a pavement, so we can’t use it.”

NATA is keen to see alternate runway surfacing options explored, including chip seal and also an aluminum plank runway manufactured by a company called Faun Trackway. 

“It’s an offshoot of military aluminum runways,” said Nourse. “They are horrendously capital cost intensive, but if you look at them over the life span, it looks better. Also, if the ground heaves, you just take up the runway planks, regrade, and put them down again.” He added that this option also has an economic spinoff benefit, in that all the necessary aluminum could be sourced and produced in Canada. 

Some have questioned whether legacy northern runways need to be extended in order to ensure safer operations. Nourse points out that aircraft generally take a 15 per cent performance penalty when operating on gravel. “So, by sealing these runways we’ll effectively make them 15 per cent longer, which is a huge benefit,” he said. “Even if you don’t need it, you’ve increased your safety margins. Not to mention the massive reduction in foreign object damage.”

Many of Canada’s northern airports are legacy facilities constructed by Transport Canada, built when the largest aircraft of the day was the rugged Douglas DC-3. They simply weren’t designed to host Dash 8s, ATRs, and Boeing 737s, let alone the aircraft of the future. 

Nourse cites the issue of regulated runway transitional zones, the ramp area that must remain clear of any obstacle that could hinder the safe operation of aircraft.  “Transport has become more rigid, and someone says we’re now breaking the transitional slopes because the old terminals are too close to the runways,” he said. “Also, modern aircraft have higher tails, so we have a situation where we can’t technically park an airplane in some places. And Transport Canada won’t issue an exemption anymore.”

This is a good illustration of NATA’s mantra, which is quite simply that “one size doesn’t fit all.” There are real differences between operating at Vancouver International compared to Old Crow Airport in the Yukon. 

“It’s not that we’re anti-improvement. We just have to be careful that regulations aren’t inadvertently hurting the North,” said Nourse.

Jet service in the North is pretty much limited to the venerable Boeing 737-200, although the smaller Avro RJ85—the last jet aircraft to be certified for gravel operations—is starting to make inroads.

 

“The 737-200s are getting incredibly long in the tooth,” said Nourse. “We could probably extend their lives safely for some time, but they’ve hit the economic wall. Their engines are fuel hungry and greenhouse gas unfriendly. Plus, maintenance availability is dwindling. Avionics systems are aging and it’s getting harder to find people to overhaul those components.”

Unless more jet replacements come online, said Nourse, some markets in the North could lose their jet service.  

NATA is watching several other issues closely, including proposed changes to Canada’s flight and duty time regulations, which Nourse said would have a detrimental impact on northern emergency services, such as aerial firefighting and medevac. Once again, this is an example of regulations that are advantageous to airline operations in southern Canada, while at the same time being harmful to northern operators. 

In terms of weather information, Nourse praises many of the reporting agents hired by Nav Canada at remote airports. “They have really helped, although we do still have some problems with some of the manned locations,” he conceded. “It’s such a small pool of manpower and the traditional lifestyle up there does not cater to the discipline of being there every day, at this time, for this reporting.” 

However, since accurate weather reporting is a crucial ingredient to safe operations, NATA would like to see an extension of fully automated weather services across the North.

In addition to weather cams, the association would also like to see better lighting and approaches installed at remote northern airstrips, instead of the proposed plan to build runway end safety areas (RESAs). These are clear, graded areas at the end of runways, designed to minimize damage to an aircraft in the event of a runway overrun. However, Nourse would rather see precious dollars spent on improving safety for every flight that uses the airport, not just the “one in a million” that might utilize a RESA.

In addition to infrastructure and environmental challenges, northern operators are also facing increased competition from southern-based air carriers who are serving only the more lucrative routes. “It’s true that competition will drive down prices, but if you’re a northern operator and that’s your lucrative route, you now have to charge more on secondary routes in order to keep your company solvent,” said Nourse. “The other aspect is that you have to scale back on operations, which affects jobs and investment in those towns.”

More than 200 people are expected to discuss these issues and many more at NATA’s annual conference in Whitehorse, April 25 to 27. But even though NATA continues to grapple with many of the same concerns that have always challenged northern and remote air services, Nourse said it will be time to stop and celebrate the association’s 40th year.

“We’re having a big reception in the Air North hangar,” he said. “We’re gathering up information and old photos, models, uniforms, pens, logos—anything we can find—and putting them into displays. We’ve done video interviews with some industry characters. And, we’re asking people to wear whatever old uniforms they can still fit into!”

Looking ahead to the future, Nourse said the association will grow organically if it does its job right. “We need to continue to be the effective voice for northern and remote air carriers in Canada,” he said. “If we do that right, the growth will take care of itself.”

Editor’s Note: At NATA’s 2016 AGM in Whitehorse, Stephen Nourse will officially be succeeded by Glenn Priestly, the association’s incoming executive director.