Joint effort lands air carrier. (Communities of the North: Tri-Towns).

When Air North took flight in January, its main goal was to support local business.

"We are finding it not only important for supporting local business, it is also important for attracting new business," says New Liskeard Mayor Jamie Hawken. "When we started looking at getting the call centre project here and staff from their company came up to inspect our operation up here, one of the things they were looking for was a regional air carrier that can get them where they needed to go."

Earlton Airport manager Dalton Potter says Air North began regular daily flights Jan. 28 and, since then, has flown over 2,000 passengers in its Beech King Air 200 twin-prop plane chartered from Chatham-based Sontair. The plane flies daily from Rouyn-Noranda to Kirkland Lake, then on to Earlton Airport and south to Toronto.

"We lost our regularly scheduled air service in June of 1999 and since then we've had a lot of businesses calling us about air service," Potter says. "We have had a lot of requests and support from the business community."

The establishment of an air carrier has been the result of collaborative efforts between the Earlton-Timiskaming Regional Airport Advisory Committee, the Corporation of the Township of Armstrong, the Town of Kirkland Lake, the South Temiskaming Business Development Corp. and the City of Rouyn-Noranda.

With support of the assorted Timiskaming chambers of commerce, along with funding from FedNor, Human Resources Development Canada (HRDC) and the Timiskaming Business Development Fund, Air North was given its wings.

Air North is managed by a committee of municipal representatives, air enthusiasts and members of the business and medical community that make use of the service, Potter says. The service is geared primarily toward the business traveller.

"A market survey of the various chambers of commerce, including Englehart, Kirkland Lake and the Tri-Towns, where our business clientele come from, responded 75 to 80 per cent that we needed this kind of air service," says Potter. "The main destination they were looking for was Toronto's Pearson where they can then connect onto various flights.

"We've had nothing but good comments from our clients," Potter adds. Clients have noted a few improvements from the original air carrier. The primary one is that the Beech King Air 200 is a pressurized plane, which permits it to travel to a maximum height of 35,000 feet, resulting in a smoother ride for the passengers.

Another new feature at the airport is the Can-Pass service. Air carriers and charter services from the United States can fly directly from the U.S. to Earlton Airport. Potter says two Canadian Customs officers are available on a part-time, on-call basis to the airport to carry out Canada Customs inspections and clearances instead of requiring a stop at Pearson International Airport in Mississauga.

The service has been another benefit to the airport as it means more charter services will be encouraged to bring business people and tourists from the northern United States into Northern Ontario.