The non-profit Northerners Taking Flight is taking over flight training in hopes of expanding across all three territories.
Alkan Airlines announced a move to transition its flight training programs to a non-profit organization, Northerners Taking Flight.
The non-profit organization has a board made up of representatives from aviation operators across the three territories and will now be operating Alkan Air’s flight training unit, according to the non-profit’s release on Nov. 14.
The release states that the transition will allow for greater access to funding, sponsorship and improvements to enhance programs and services.
The non-profit’s executive director Justin Ziegler confirmed with the News that the flight training units will remain in Whitehorse but that the non-profit will have more scope for funding and sponsorship opportunities.
Ziegler mentioned remote training opportunities in Faro. He highlighted that the organization has partnered with Yukon university to help with the Aviation Management diploma.
“There is the remote Flight School in Faro and the flight training in Whitehorse works in partnership with the university and offers a management and aviation diploma for students who want to become a pilot,” Ziegler said.
Alkan Air CEO, Wendy Tayler, spoke with the News and said the group composes a board made up people with a strong background in the aviation sector across the North.
“We wanted to make the Alkan Air Flight Academy a pan territorial solution that was focused on ensuring that we had the ability to train northerners in all three territories to fly here at home,” Tayler said.
Canadian North, an airline operating in the N.W.T and Nunavut are represented on the board, alongside the Whitehorse owner and operator of Rodan Air Maintenance. Representatives from Air North, Air Tindi, Summit Air and Great Slave Helicopters also serve on the board, according to the Nov. 14 release.
Tayler says Alkan Airline’s flight training program has done a great job of training Yukoners to become proficient enough to apply to local companies. She adds that Alkan Air would like to see that enhanced across all the territories.
Tayler also said that the Alkan Flight Academy has four Kaska citizens going through the pilot project in Faro.
She added that Northerners Taking Flight board member Justin Rogers from Rodan Air Maintenance focuses on flight training and aircraft mechanics across the three territories. She highlighted that having aircraft maintenance engineers is a crucial gap to fill at this time.
“It’s an important piece of aviation and they really don’t get spoken about very often, right? Every plane you get into, somebody had to fix and they’re critical to our industry,” Tayler said.
Northerners Taking Flight has ambitions to expand flight training beyond the Yukon and in to the N.W.T and Nunavut. The Whitehorse facility is equipped with a flight simulator and a fleet of four Cessna 172s, with remote training access in Faro.
Zieglar said that Northerners Taking Flight want to work on finding a solution to training a cohort of aircraft maintenance engineers in the north as well, although a timeline hasn’t yet been forward for undertaking the task.
“We want to expand the flight training to the other two territories. We also want to work on find a solution to training aircraft maintenance engineers (AME) in the north. So we give northerners the opportunity to become AMEs in the north, because the shortage of AMEs is critical all over Canada,” said Zieglar.
According to Tayler, many economically important sectors in the Yukon rely on aviation. These include the mining industry, logistics and infrastructure, tourism and public sector organizations.
“There’s really not a sector in the north that isn’t reliant on the aviation industry.” Tayler said
The transfer of Alkan Air’s flight training unit to Northerners Taking Flight opens opportunities to collaborate more closely with various levels of government and foundations across Canada, fostering a stronger northern aviation training program, she added.
Contact Jake Howarth at jake.howarth@yukon-news.com
