Canadian North to add first B737NG

Canadian North (5T, Yellowknife) is set to add its first B737-700 in the form of C-FHBO (msn 32768), director (flight operations) of sister carrier First Air (7F, Carp), Murray Balzer, has revealed. The 16-year-old narrowbody has been operated by WestJet (WS, Calgary) as C-FXWJ since its delivery in 2005, the ch-aviation fleets history module shows. It was retired by the carrier in early November 2020 and has since been stored first at Calgary and then at Kelowna. It has yet to be added to Canadian North’s register. The aircraft is owned by Castlelake. Having recently retired all of its DHC-4 turboprops, Canadian North currently operates an all-Boeing fleet comprising two B737-200(C)s, eight B737-300s, and two B737-300(QC)s, which are, on average, 25.6 years old. The incoming B737-700 will be the carrier’s youngest aircraft. In December 2020, Canadian North signed a Letter of Intent (LOI) with Air Greenland (GL, Nuuk) to explore partnership opportunities for scheduled flights from Ottawa Int’l and possibly Toronto Pearson to Greenland (Ilulissat and Nuuk) using two B737-700s. Canadian North has yet to confirm the identity of the second unit of the type. The airline did not respond to ch-aviation’s query regarding its B737-700 plans. Canadian North also wet-leases from First Air three B737-400(C)s and one B737-400, as well as an ensemble of eleven ATR42s in various variants.