Some friends of mine here in Minneapolis are planning to take an Elderhostel course in Nunavut starting June 17.

In searching for airfare, they have found nothing cheaper than $1900 each, although their initial inquiries yielded prices of $3200.

Is it really that expensive to fly to the Arctic? Is the high price because they're going in Midnight Sun season? Is it because they're looking 6 months ahead? Are any routings any cheaper than any other?

Thanks in advance. Any advice would be appreciated, because my friends have been to Churchill on a bear-watching expedition and are eager to go even farther north.

OUCH!

That is one $$$$ place to get to!

Saw (on ITA) that MSP-YFB (Jun 15-23 for the sake of it) was $2k..

Then checked from YOW - same dates .... $1551...

THEN checked using the month long search... and the price is that same $1551 from January to June....

Of course ITA isn't always the only place to look... but Geez!!!

Sorry.. it doesn't look good..... First Air (7F?) and Canadian North (5T?) have exactly the same prices each day too......

Just looked at the map... 63 North! That is seriously "up there"... I suspect the prices are related to the remoteness!

Yes.

I'm a Canadian, and one of my frequent rants is I've ridden a horse around the Pyramids, SCUBA dived in Belize, explored Mexico city etc. but I've never been to the Arctic. Why? Because it's cheaper for a Canadian to fly to Paris than it is to their 'own' Arctic.

Heck, as someone living Vancouver it's nearly the same price for me to fly to Nova Scotia as it is to fly to London, England.

Yes !
No !
No !
It depends where in Nunavut you're going. For places like Iqaluit or Rankin that have direct flights from the south, 1400-1500$ r/t from the gateway city - YOW, YUL, YWG, &c - is about the very bottom end. (I may once have seen YUL-YFB for less than 1400$ when 7F had a special Christmas sale on.)

For more remote places where a connection in the north is necessary, it can be a lot more than that. The whole nature of the problem is that there aren't a lot of routings to choose from. (Though oddly enough there are more airlines operating some northern routes than operate YYZ-YVR. )

Definitely! It was interesting to see how many short haul flights operate from YFB...

..and they are ALL uniformly expensive! Cheapest I saw was I think $800... and I'm pretty sure it was on a 12 seater....

I am going to make a couple assumptions based on the airfare. You are looking at getting to Iqaluit (YFB) from Ottawa (YOW). There are only 2 airlines on this route First Air (7F) and Canadian North (5T), so airfares on this route are pretty inflated. If you sign up for their emails on their web sites they will alert you when they run a seat sale.
$1800 is a little high, $1500-1600 is the average price, and on sale this route is usually $1200-1300 return.
June 17 is not the best time as this is pretty close to the "peak summer travel period" as most kids will be getting out of school and alot of families leave town for summer vacations around this time.
In Canada one of the best deals for this route is to redeem aeroplan points as they consider this a short haul domestic flight. In theory this should also be bookable with any star alliance mileage.
These flights are run on 737-200 aircraft but sometimes F7 uses a 727.You can do online seat selection with 5T. Booth carriers offer meal service on these flights but neither has IFE.
If you have anymore questions about Nunavut feel free to PM me.

Aeroplan website doesn't even recognize YFB. Do I need to call to book? Thanks.

I travel to various places in Nunavut 6 times a year for work. It is routinely 2000-3000 dollars per flight. Also, a dinner at a restaurant is well in excess of $50

Yes, and they will also try to charge you the 30$ phone booking fee.

If you're trying to get an award on 7F (First Air), be warned that the process is kind of weird. 7F don't seem to have a 'bucket' of allotted award seats, you have to 'request' an award via Aeroplan, Aeroplan forward it to 7F, and 7F decide based on God knows what factors whether they feel like giving you an award seat. However so long as you are not trying to get an award during the school holidays you should be all right.

The other thing about 7F awards is that they can only be combined with travel on AC metal. You can't have flights on Canadian North, Calm Air, &c, or (as far as I am aware ?) flights on other *A airlines, on the same award itinerary as flights on 7F.

A great deal of patience and perseverance is required to get one of these awards the way you want it, but it's well worth it when you consider the cost in miles versus the cost in dollars.

OK, so I'm learning a lot here about the Canadian north. This comment raises the question: How do families in that area afford flights that are $1500 or more per person. For a family of 4 that would be $6k or more just to go to Florida or something???

Wages are higher in the North to a degree. Air fare is also a tax write off that can be claimed twice a year for anyone ( and their dependents) that lives more that 6 months a year up here.

High wages, employer subsidised travel, Gov't employees and Natives help drive the higher fares, along with the fact their is minimal competition and it is a harsh environment to operate in.

The North is one of the many places I need to see. We live in the North by most people standards 56 Long, nothing in comparison though.