Keewatin Air (

IATA The International Air Transport Association (IATA ) is an airline trade association founded in 1945. IATA has been described as a cartel since, in addition to setting technical standards for airlines, IATA also organized tariff conferences tha ...

: FK) is an airline that operates from

Winnipeg Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Manitoba. It is centred on the confluence of the Red River of the North, Red and Assiniboine River, Assiniboine rivers. , Winnipeg h ...

Manitoba Manitoba is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada at the Centre of Canada, longitudinal centre of the country. It is Canada's Population of Canada by province and territory, fifth-most populous province, with a population ...

, Canada.Company Bases
/ref> The airline was started by Frank Robert May (who had been a pilot for

Lamb Air Lamb Air Ltd. was a Canadian airline that began operations in 1934 in The Pas, Manitoba, and went out of business in 1981. History Tom Lamb was the son of Thomas Henry Peacock (THP) Lamb, who had emigrated from England in the late 19th centu ...

) and his wife Judy Saxby in 1971, in the

Keewatin Region The Keewatin Region was a district of the Northwest Territories, in use as an administrative and statistical division until the creation of Nunavut in 1999. The majority of Keewatin Region fell on the Nunavut side of the boundary and was reconst ...

, then part of the

Northwest Territories The Northwest Territories is a federal Provinces and territories of Canada, territory of Canada. At a land area of approximately and a 2021 census population of 41,070, it is the second-largest and the most populous of Provinces and territorie ...

. It was formed as "Keewatin Air Limited" to provide charter services to the region. It was the first airline to have a permanent base in Nunavut (then known as the Keewatin Region of the Northwest Territories). In 1987 it expanded to include

medical evacuation Medical evacuation, often shortened to medevac or medivac, is the timely and efficient movement and en route care provided by medical personnel to patients requiring evacuation or transport using medically equipped air ambulances, helicopters and ...

(MEDEVAC) services, to what would become the

Kivalliq Region The Kivalliq Region (; Inuktitut syllabics: ᑭᕙᓪᓕᖅ) is an Region, administrative List of regions of Nunavut, region of Nunavut, Canada. It consists of the portion of the mainland to the west of Hudson Bay together with Southampton Island ...

, using a fleet of aircraft that began with a Tradewind aircraft - a multi-modified

Beech 18 The Beechcraft Model 18 (or "Twin Beech", as it is also known) is a 6- to 11-seat, twin-engined, low-wing, tailwheel light aircraft manufactured by the Beech Aircraft Corporation of Wichita, Kansas. Continuously produced from 1937 to Novembe ...

with a

turbine engine A turbine engine is a machine using a turbine and may refer to: *Steam turbine, where the turbine is driven by steam *Gas turbine. where the turbine is driven by internally combusted gases ** Jet turbine, a jet engine ***Turbojet The turboj ...

and

tricycle gear Tricycle gear is a type of aircraft undercarriage, or ''landing gear'', that is arranged in a tricycle fashion. The tricycle arrangement has one or more nose wheels in a single front undercarriage and two or more main wheels slightly aft of th ...

. This aircraft was followed by a Westwind, another modified Beech 18 with turbine engines and eventually these were replaced by Merlin IIA aircraft that had the added benefit of being pressurized and had turboprops. The MEDEVAC service is now known as "Nunavut Lifeline". Currently three Kingair 200 aircraft are based in Rankin Inlet, one in

Churchill, Manitoba Churchill is a subarctic port town in northern Manitoba, Canada, on the west shore of Hudson Bay, roughly from the Manitoba–Nunavut border. It is most famous for the many polar bears that move toward the shore from inland in the autumn, leadi ...

. and two in Iqaluit, where the airline also bases a Lear 35 for the long hauls to

Ottawa Ottawa is the capital city of Canada. It is located in the southern Ontario, southern portion of the province of Ontario, at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the cor ...

and a

Pilatus PC-12 The Pilatus PC-12 is a pressurized, single-engined, turboprop aircraft manufactured by Pilatus Aircraft of Stans, Switzerland since 1991. It was designed as a high-performance utility aircraft that incorporates a large aft cargo door in addi ...

to access the short strips. In 1998 the company formed Kivalliq Air to provide scheduled air service within the Kivalliq Region and to Winnipeg and Churchill. That service has since been cancelled. In 2005 the company was sold to Exchange Industrial Income Fund (now Exchange Income Corporation), owners of

Perimeter Aviation Perimeter Aviation is an airline with its head office on the property of Winnipeg James Armstrong Richardson International Airport in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. Perimeter Aviation operates more than 30 aircraft on scheduled, charter, and medevac ...

Bearskin Airlines Bearskin Lake Air Service LP, operating as Bearskin Airlines, is a regional airline based in Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada. It is a division of Perimeter Aviation and operates services in northern Ontario and Manitoba. Its main base is at Thund ...

and

Calm Air Calm Air International LP. is a full service airline, offering passenger, charter and freight services in northern Manitoba and the Kivalliq Region of Nunavut. It is owned by Exchange Income Corporation with its main base in Winnipeg, Manitoba. ...

. May and Saxby continued to manage the airline for a short period after the sale.CBC News - Keewatin Air sold to southern interests
/ref>

Destinations

Charter services are available to destinations throughout North America.
/ref>

Fleet

As of February 2011 the following 24 aircraft were registered with

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 ...

and at least 9 listed with Keewatin Air.Keewatin Air fleet
/ref>

Accidents and incidents

* On December 22, 2012, a

Fairchild Metro The Fairchild Swearingen Metroliner (previously the Swearingen Metro and later Fairchild Aerospace Metro) is a 19-seat, pressurized, twin-turboprop airliner first produced by Swearingen Aircraft and later by Fairchild Aircraft at a plant in San A ...

3/23 twin-engine turboprop aircraft belonging to

but chartered by Kivalliq Air crashed near the end of the runway at

Sanikiluaq Airport Sanikiluaq Airport is located at Sanikiluaq, Nunavut, Canada, and is operated by the Government of Nunavut. It is one of the few airports in Nunavut that uses magnetic headings for the runway rather than true headings. Airlines and destinatio ...

northern Canada Northern Canada (), colloquially the North or the Territories, is the vast northernmost region of Canada, variously defined by geography and politics. Politically, the term refers to the three Provinces_and_territories_of_Canada#Territories, terr ...

, killing a six-month-old baby and injuring the eight other people on board. The cause was not immediately known.

References

External links

Keewatin Air official site
{{Airlines of Canada Air Transport Association of Canada Regional airlines of Nunavut Airlines established in 1972