Traffic
Central Mountain Air Dornier 328-100 in the overnight parking area. This charter brought in a group of senators on some sort of Northern tour.
Now that summer is here we are starting to get the usual stream of interesting aircraft that seem to turn up once the snow goes away. Most of these transients are types I've never seen here before so I try to grab a decent picture before they disappear again.
This trio of bizjets brought in oil company exec's for the Petroleum Show. The Hawker 800 is flanked on either side by a pair of Learjet 45's.
In June Inuvik hosts an annual trade show and exposition dedicated to oil & gas exploration in the Mackenzie Delta. As well as the VIP's in bizjets, Canadian North also flew an extra half a dozen 737 flights during the show to meet the increased demand.
This Saab 340 of Alaskan carrier Peninsula Airways was in from Anchorage doing crew change for workers refitting the Kulluk offshore drilling platform.
The ongoing refit of the Kulluk continues to generate interesting traffic. Built in the 1980's by Canadian Marine Drilling, the Kulluk is one of the few drilling platforms in the world designed specifically to operate in the Arctic Ocean. Mothballed for almost 20 years, the platform is being refitted by Shell Oil for work in the Alaskan Beaufort Sea. In addition to the Cougar Helicopters S-61N's that are in and out on an almost daily basis, PenAir is also here several times a month with their Saab 340's, Beech 1900's and Fairchild Metro 23's. This season Canadian Helicopters also brought in an AgustaWestland AW139 dedicated to Kulluk support operations. Waaaay nicer to be strapped into for two hours than a Bell 212!
On lease from Era Helicopters, this AgustaWestland AW139 is flying for Canadian Helicopters in support of the Kulluk operations.
