Air Nunavut, trading as Smooth Air, is an

airline An airline is a company that provides civil aviation, air transport services for traveling passengers or freight (cargo). Airlines use aircraft to supply these services and may form partnerships or Airline alliance, alliances with other airlines ...

based in

Iqaluit Iqaluit is the capital of the Canadian territory of Nunavut. It is the territory's largest community and its only city, and the northernmost city in Canada. It was known as Frobisher Bay from 1942 to 1987, after the large bay on the coast on ...

Nunavut Nunavut is the largest and northernmost Provinces and territories of Canada#Territories, territory of Canada. It was separated officially from the Northwest Territories on April 1, 1999, via the ''Nunavut Act'' and the Nunavut Land Claims Agr ...

, Canada. It is the only local and

Inuit Inuit (singular: Inuk) are a group of culturally and historically similar Indigenous peoples traditionally inhabiting the Arctic and Subarctic regions of North America and Russia, including Greenland, Labrador, Quebec, Nunavut, the Northwe ...

-ownedTo be registered with

Nunavut Tunngavik Incorporated Nunavut Tunngavik Incorporated (NTI; , ) is the legal representative of the Inuit of Nunavut for the purposes of native treaty rights and treaty negotiation. The presidents of NTI, Makivik Corporation, Nunatsiavut, and the Inuvialuit Regional Co ...

as an Inuit firm Article 24 of the

Nunavut Land Claims Agreement The Nunavut Land Claims Agreement (NCLA, ) was signed on May 25, 1993, in Iqaluit, by representatives of the Tunngavik Federation of Nunavut (now Nunavut Tunngavik Incorporated), the Government of Canada and the Government of the Northwest Terri ...

requires that the owner, or 51% ownership of the companies shares, be Inuit. Full details a
Nunavut Land Claims Agreement
Firm Details for - Air Nunavut
/ref> air carrier in the eastern

Arctic The Arctic (; . ) is the polar regions of Earth, polar region of Earth that surrounds the North Pole, lying within the Arctic Circle. The Arctic region, from the IERS Reference Meridian travelling east, consists of parts of northern Norway ( ...

, operating

charter A charter is the grant of authority or rights, stating that the granter formally recognizes the prerogative of the recipient to exercise the rights specified. It is implicit that the granter retains superiority (or sovereignty), and that the ...

services throughout Canada's Arctic, northern

Quebec Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...

and

Greenland Greenland is an autonomous territory in the Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark. It is by far the largest geographically of three constituent parts of the kingdom; the other two are metropolitan Denmark and the Faroe Islands. Citizens of Greenlan ...

. Its main base is

Iqaluit Airport Iqaluit Airport () serves Iqaluit, Nunavut, Canada and is located adjacent to the city. It hosts Airline, scheduled passenger service from Ottawa, Rankin Inlet, and Kuujjuaq on carriers such as Canadian North, and from smaller communities throug ...

History

The airline was established and started charter operations in 1989 as Air Baffin. Scheduled services were inaugurated in May 1992. It was renamed to Air Nunavut in 1996. The airline also has two main bases of operations,

Oshawa Executive Airport Oshawa Executive Airport is a municipal airport adjacent to the north end of the city of Oshawa, Ontario, Canada. It is the busiest general aviation airport without scheduled airline service in the Greater Toronto Area by aircraft movements and ...

and Iqaluit Airport. Under the division company name SmoothAir Charter operate Dassault Falcons out of Oshawa Executive Airport offering charter services. The Beechcraft King Air 200s remain in Iqaluit servicing the surrounding communities.

Fleet

According to

Transport Canada Transport Canada () is the Ministry (government department), department within the Government of Canada responsible for developing regulations, Policy, policies and Public services, services of road, rail, marine and air Transport in Canada, tra ...

the Air Nunavut fleet consists of the following aircraft (as of February 2025):

References

External links

*
Air Nunavut / SmoothAir Charter website
Airlines established in 1989 Regional airlines of Nunavut Transportation in Qikiqtaaluk Region {{Nunavut-stub