Sask airline makes it easier for northern students to return home
- Fraser Needham | October 05, 2015
Transwest Air is making it a little easier for post-secondary students from one far northern Saskatchewan community to return home in between classes.
The Saskatchewan-based airline has announced it will fund the cost of 53 plane tickets for 26 students of the Fond Du Lac Denesuline First Nation and their dependents to return home while in school.
Darryl McDonald is the CEO of the Fond Du Lac First Nation.
He says a one-way flight from the community to Prince Albert or Saskatoon can cost as much as $700 and so the help is much appreciated.
“It will help them out during breaks, like maybe Thanksgiving or Christmas or whenever they can use it.”
Access to Fond du Lac is fly in only during the summer and the drive in wintertime can be as many as 10-12 hours from Prince Albert.
McDonald adds the student airline tickets also fit within Transwest’s main priorities.
“Education, sports, recreation – that’s their main focus right now, instead of just giving out donations,” he says. “So, they feel that because they’re a northern company and they service the north that this would be their main incentive or areas that they focus on and it’s well received.”
“One clear struggle that northerners face, is that to attend post-secondary education they must leave their homes and community for significant periods of time,” Transwest Air chief operating officer Garrett Lawless says in a released statement. “Understandably, this is very difficult emotionally and financially, and this is why so few in the north achieve this. We alone cannot alleviate the full measure of this challenge, but we are committed to doing everything we can.”
Transwest currently flies to the northern Saskatchewan communities of La Ronge, Fond du Lac, Stony Rapids, Points North and Wollaston Lake with service to Prince Albert and Saskatoon.
The airline is in its fifteenth year after being created by a merger between Athabasca Airways and La Ronge Aviation in 2000.
Transwest offers both rotary and fixed wing charter services and has the largest scheduled service network in Saskatchewan.
The airline offers services to mining employees, MEDEVAC and provincial court employees.
It also has the Northern Shield Helicopters division, which provides a variety of logistical support services where airports and landing strips are not available.
At present, Transwest has a total of 35 aircraft across all of its divisions.