Arctic Sunwest Charters


8199400 Canada Inc. operating as Arctic Sunwest Charters was a charter airline based in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Canada. It operated passenger and cargo charter services in Canada's Arctic, with wheel, ski and float equipped aircraft. Its main base was Yellowknife Airport and also operated a float base on Great Slave Lake near the Yellowknife Water Aerodrome.

History

The airline was established in 1989 and was created from the Aviation Division of RTL-Robinson Enterprises. On the 31 August 2012, Arctic Sunwest Charters became part of the Ledcor Group of Companies. In 2013 it was fully integrated into its affiliate Summit Air.

Maintenance

The company was certified by Transport Canada as an Approved Maintenance Organization with aircraft maintenance engineers. They had of hangar space available and provided maintenance services to other airlines.

Fleet

As of October 2012 the Arctic Sunwest Charters fleet consisted of the following aircraft:
AircraftNo. of AircraftVariantsIdentsNotes
Beechcraft Model 991GASW12 passengers. No longer in TC database
Beechcraft King Air1100 seriesFASN7 passengers. Now owned by Island Express Air
de Havilland Canada DHC-2 Beaver2DHC-2 MK. IIIFOEV, FOPE8 passengers, skis, amphibious. Now part of Summit Air.
de Havilland Canada DHC-5 Buffalo2DHC-5AFASV, FASYCargo up to, the only civil Buffalo aircraft operating in Canada Now part of Summit Air.
de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter3100 series, 300 seriesFASQ, FTFX, FTXQCombi, 19 passengers or, floats, skis, tundra tires. Now part of Summit Air.
de Havilland Canada Dash 82DHC-8-102FASC, GASBCombi, 37 passengers or. Now part of Summit Air.
Piper PA-31 Navajo2PA-31-350FKCL, FSWN8 passengers. Now part of Summit Air.

Accidents and incidents

On 22 September 2011, a float equipped Arctic Sunwest Twin Otter, that had been charted by Avalon Rare Metals, crashed while landing at Yellowknife Water Aerodrome. The Twin Otter, GARW, was inbound from Thor Lake and carried seven passengers and two crew. All seven of the passengers were injured and both pilots were killed.