Keewatin Air
Keewatin Air is an airline that operates from Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. The airline was started by Frank Robert May and his wife Judy Saxby in 1971, in the Keewatin Region, then part of the Northwest Territories.
It was formed as "Keewatin Air Limited" to provide charter services to the region. It was the first airline to have a permanent base in Nunavut. In 1987 it expanded to include medical evacuation services, to what would become the Kivalliq Region, using a fleet of aircraft that began with a Tradewind aircraft - a multi-modified Beech 18 with a turbine engine and tricycle gear. This aircraft was followed by a Westwind, another modified Beech 18 with turbine engines and eventually these were replaced by Merlin IIA aircraft that had the added benefit of being pressurized and had turboprops. The MEDEVAC service is now known as "Nunavut Lifeline". Currently three Kingair 200 aircraft are based in Rankin Inlet, one in Churchill, Manitoba. and two in Iqaluit, where the airline also bases a Lear 35 for the long hauls to Ottawa and a Pilatus PC-12 to access the short strips.
In 1998 the company formed Kivalliq Air to provide scheduled air service within the Kivalliq Region and to Winnipeg and Churchill. That service has since been cancelled.
In 2005 the company was sold to Exchange Industrial Income Fund, owners of Perimeter Aviation, Bearskin Airlines and Calm Air. May and Saxby continued to manage the airline for a short period after the sale.
Destinations
Charter services are available to destinations throughout North America.Fleet
As of October 2019 the following 22 aircraft were registered with Transport Canada and 10listed with Keewatin Air.| Aircraft | No. of aircraft Keewatin | No. of aircraft TC | Variants | Notes |
| Beechcraft Super King Air | 7 | 18 | King Air 200/B200 | 12 are listed under the trade name Kivalliq Air Nunavut Lifeline. MEDIVAC. Four are listed aa Model 200 and fourteen as Model B200 |
| Cessna Citation V | 0 | 2 | Model 560, Model 560 Ultra | 7-8 passengers. Not on Keewatin site. |
| Learjet 35 | 2 | 1 | 35A | MEDIVAC (air ambulance |
| Pilatus PC-12 | 1 | 1 | PC-12/45 | air charter |
The Transport Canada website also shows a Beechcraft Model 18 3NM but with a cancelled certificate from 1999.
Accidents and incidents
- On December 22, 2012, a Fairchild Metro 3/23 twin-engine turboprop aircraft belonging to Perimeter Aviation but chartered by Kivalliq Air crashed near the end of the runway at Sanikiluaq Airport in northern Canada, killing a six-month-old baby and injuring the eight other people on board. The cause was not immediately known.