Originally Posted by
WHBM
Almost looks like
S2A made the trip 35 years ago just in the expectation of this question coming up one day
CP, Canadian Pacific, CP Air, Canadian, whatever they called themselves as it changed each decade, originally had a substantial north-south operation through BC/Yukon, which they progressively shed, mainly to little Pacific Western, who built up to enough mass over time that they eventually merged and absorbed CP themselves. Of course, it all started with DC3s, followed by the DC6Bs which the
Britannias had displaced from longer runs.
Interesting to note that Canadian Pacific operated the Britannia turboprop (which the airline called the "Britannia Empress") at one point on the BC/Yukon milk run route between Vancouver and Whitehorse. Here are the scheds from their April 29, 1962 system timetable...
CP 21: Vancouver 9:00a - 10:20a Prince George 10:40a - 11:25a Fort St. John 11:55a - 12:45p Fort Nelson 1:00p - 12:35p Whitehorse
Op: Mon., Weds., Fri., Sat. only
Equip: Britannia Empress
CP 21: Vancouver 9:00a - 10:20a Prince George 10:40a - 11:25a - Fort St. John 11:55a - 12:45p Fort Nelso 1:00p - 12:00n Watson Lake 12:15p - 1:05p Whitehorse
Op: Tues., Thurs. only
Equip: Britannia Empress
CP 22: Whitehorse 2:00p - 5:30p Fort Nelson 5:45p - 6:30p Fort St. John 7:00p - 7:50p Prince George 8:05p - 9:25p Vancouver
Op: Mon., Tues., Thurs., Sat. only
Equip: Britannia Empress
CP 22: Whitehorse 1:30p - 2:20p Watson Lake 2:35p - 5:30p Fort Nelson 5:45p - 6:30p Fort St. John 7:00p - 7:50p Prince George 8:05p - 9:25p Vancouver
Op: Weds., Fri. only
Equip: Britannia Empress
I cannot help but think the Britannia was a rather large airplane to operate on this route. Perhaps Canadian Pacific came to this realization as well as their April 24, 1966 timetable lists flights CP 21 and CP 22 being operated with Douglas DC-6B equipment on the same basic schedules (although frequency into Watson Lake had increased to three flights a week in each direction by this time).
By 1970, the airline had changed its name to CP Air and these routes were being operated with Boeing 737-200 aircraft. According to their July 15, 1970 system timetable, flight numbers CP 21 and CP 22 were still in use although the round trip routing was Vancouver-Prince George-Whitehorse and was flown daily. The milk run routing had changed by this time and was Edmonton-Grande Prairie-Fort St. John-Fort Nelson-Watson Lake-Whitehorse. This round trip routing was operated daily with the exception that Watson Lake was served three days a week in each direction.