Air Inuit

Nunavik lies north of the 55th parallel in northern Québec – and none of its 14 Inuit villages is connected to the south by road. If you want to get there, you fly. And whoever wants to bring milk, medicine, building materials or mail to the north usually sends it by plane too. The airline that has handled this since 1978 belongs to the people it serves: Air Inuit. Here you learn how it is set up, which aircraft it flies and why its fleet is among the most exciting in North America for spotters.

Air Inuit at a glance

Air Inuit is a Canadian regional airline founded by the Inuit of Nunavik in 1978. The goal was clear from the start: connect the region’s coastal villages with each other, make trade easier and strengthen their own culture at the same time. The first aircraft was a DHC-2 Beaver – the classic Canadian bush plane.

Today it has grown into an airline with turboprops and jets. The most important base is Kuujjuaq on Ungava Bay, Nunavik’s administrative center. A second base is in Puvirnituq on Hudson Bay, and the third is at Montréal-Trudeau Airport. The headquarters is in Montréal’s Saint-Laurent borough, not far from the airport.

Air Inuit does not see itself only as a transport company. Its stated mission includes reliable connections for Québec’s northernmost communities, the region’s economic development and jobs for Inuit. A dedicated training program for pilots from Nunavik is part of it, as is support for schools, cultural events and sports events.

Codes and callsign

• IATA code 3H: appears in the flight number, on the display board and on the ticket.
• ICAO code AIE: appears in the air traffic control flight plan and on flight trackers.
• Callsign INUIT: this is how the crew identifies itself on the radio.

As with all Canadian aircraft, the registration starts with C-. Especially in a fleet with many similar Dash 8s, the registration is the surest way to tell individual aircraft apart. How to read and classify registrations is explained in the guide Understanding aircraft registrations.

Who owns Air Inuit?

Air Inuit is collectively owned by the Inuit of Nunavik. The shares are held by the Makivvik Corporation, which you still find spelled Makivik in older sources. Makivvik was created in 1978 under the James Bay Agreement (James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement) as the legal representative of the Inuit of Québec. It manages land and compensation funds from that agreement and invests them in the region’s development. Its seat is Kuujjuaq, with offices in Montréal and Québec City, among others.

Besides Air Inuit, Makivvik also owns Canadian North. That airline emerged from the merger with the former First Air, which also belonged to Makivik. That puts the two most important Arctic airlines in eastern Canada in Inuit hands: Air Inuit for Nunavik, Canadian North for Nunavut and the Northwest Territories.

For passengers, this has a special touch. Air Inuit itself stresses that many of its customers are co-owners at the same time. So the airline did not come into the region from outside but arose from within it – similar to Air North in the Yukon, in which the Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation holds a stake.

The fleet: Dash 8, Twin Otter and Boeing 737

Air Inuit’s fleet is tailored to one task: short, partly unpaved runways in an Arctic climate, often with passengers and cargo in the same aircraft. The airline lists these types and versions on its website:

Type	Max. seats	Use	Spotter tip
Boeing 737-800 Combi	90	Routes Montréal – Nunavik	Newest jets in the fleet, with Wi-Fi on board
Boeing 737-800 Cargo	–	Cargo to the north	Pure freighter
Boeing 737-300C	130	Jet routes	Classic generation as a Combi
Boeing 737-200C	112	Jet routes, also on gravel	Gravel kit, being replaced step by step
Dash 8-300 Combi	45	Connections between the villages	Workhorse of the fleet
Dash 8-300 Cargo	–	Cargo	Partly with a large cargo door
Dash 8-100 Combi	37	Smaller routes	Short original version of the Dash 8
DHC-6 Twin Otter 300	19	Shortest runways, charter	Fixed landing gear, very good short-field performance
King Air 350	11	Business and charter flights	Executive seating

Air Inuit does not give exact numbers on its fleet page. According to the publicly maintained fleet list (as of mid-2025), the Dash 8 is the most common type with 15 to 17 examples (the figures there are not entirely consistent), followed by seven Twin Otters and three King Airs. Among the jets, five 737-200Cs, two 737-300Cs and three 737-800s were listed there. Treat these numbers as a snapshot – a generational change is under way, especially with the 737s.

The Dash 8 originally comes from De Havilland Canada; in the interim, the program belonged to Bombardier. Since February 2022, Air Inuit has also flown a cargo version of the Dash 8-300 with an especially large cargo door – the result of a multi-year conversion project aimed precisely at the needs of the north. Alongside the -300, Air Inuit also flies the shorter Dash 8-100, which you recognize by its stubby fuselage.

The DHC-6 Twin Otter is the smallest scheduled aircraft in the fleet. The high-wing aircraft with fixed landing gear manages extremely short runways and is therefore ideal for Arctic operations. For business travel and medical charter, the King Air 350 is also available.

The 737-200 Combi and its successor

The spotter star of Air Inuit is the Boeing 737-200 as a Combi. The first jet generation of the 737 has a big advantage: Boeing offered it with a so-called gravel kit, equipment for takeoffs and landings on gravel runways. It includes a deflector on the nose gear that pushes stones downward and probes in front of the engine inlets that are meant to keep vortices from sucking in loose gravel. For the later 737 generations, equipment like this no longer existed in this form.

That is exactly why the old 737-200s stayed in service in northern Canada for so long – at Air Inuit as well as at Canadian North, the historic First Air or the charter airline Nolinor Aviation. Kuujjuaq now has a paved main runway, so more modern jets can land there too.

Air Inuit is replacing the 737-200 Combi with Boeing 737-800 Combis. According to the airline, it carried out the conversion of the 737-800 to a Combi in a roughly three-year project together with a partner company. The new aircraft are in service; in January 2026 the airline announced free high-speed Wi-Fi on board its 737-800 Combis. The 737-200C is still listed on the official fleet page – how long it will keep flying is open. If you still want to see it, you should not wait too long.

In between sits the 737-300 Combi from the Classic generation. With up to 130 seats it is the largest passenger version in the fleet and mainly flies the routes between Montréal and the bases in the north.

How to recognize Air Inuit

Because almost everything at Air Inuit has to do with cargo, the design is often more telling than the livery. Look for these points:

With the turboprops, size helps: the Dash 8-100 is short and stubby, the -300 visibly stretched, and the Twin Otter much smaller with fixed landing gear. Many people confuse the Dash 8 with the ATR, which Canadian North, for example, operates. One quick difference: on the Dash 8, the main gear retracts into the engine nacelles, while on the ATR it retracts into fairings on the fuselage. More in the guide Telling turboprops apart.

The route network

The network has two levels. The long-haul routes connect Montréal and Québec City with the bases in Kuujjuaq and Puvirnituq – the Boeing 737s fly here. From the bases, the Dash 8s and Twin Otters take over the connections to the villages on Ungava Bay, Hudson Strait and Hudson Bay, including Salluit, Ivujivik, Akulivik, Inukjuak, Umiujaq, Kuujjuarapik, Quaqtaq, Kangirsuk, Aupaluk, Tasiujaq, Kangiqsujuaq and Kangiqsualujjuaq.

Added to that are connections to Radisson in the James Bay area, to Schefferville and Sept-Îles, and to Sanikiluaq on the Belcher Islands, which already belongs to Nunavut. Air Inuit also offers charter flights, supplemented by helicopters and a Turbo Otter from partner companies.

The airline’s announcements show how strongly demand fluctuates: in 2026, Air Inuit introduced additional frequencies between Montréal and Kuujjuaq and extended the extra flights between Montréal, Québec City and Kuujjuaq into January 2027. The schedule changes with the seasons, so check it before every spotting trip.

Spotting Air Inuit

The most realistic place for Air Inuit is Montréal-Trudeau (YUL). This is where the jets depart for the north, and with some luck you see a 737-200C among the aircraft of Air Canada, Jazz and PAL Airlines. Plan with the tracker, because the flights are not scheduled as densely as those of the big airlines.

If you really travel to the north, you experience the airline’s heart in Kuujjuaq (YVP). The airport has a paved runway of 1,829 meters and a gravel runway 1,524 meters long. Dash 8s, Twin Otters and 737s stand side by side there, plus flights from Canadian North. Expect a harsh winter, short days and long summer evenings. You can find tips for camera and equipment in frost in Plane spotting in winter, and why aircraft in the north are de-iced so often is explained in the article on aircraft de-icing.

Fleet history in stages

Air Inuit in the Canadian market

Air Inuit is not a competitor of the big network airlines but a supplier with a clearly defined task. In the east of the Canadian Arctic, it shares the role with its sister Canadian North; in the west, Air North in the Yukon fills a comparable function. What all three have in common: mixed fleets of turboprops and jets, lots of cargo and a close bond with the population they serve.

For collectors, that holds a special appeal. The fleet is manageable, the types are partly rare, and the airline practically never shows up outside its home territory. An Air Inuit sighting is therefore a real rarity for European spotters – how to put such finds in perspective is shown in the guide How rare is my sighting?.

Common mix-ups

• Mixing up Air Inuit and Canadian North – both belong to Makivvik, but Air Inuit flies in Nunavik (Québec), Canadian North mainly in Nunavut and the Northwest Territories.
• Taking Air Inuit for a subsidiary of Air Canada – the airline is independent and owned by the Inuit of Nunavik.
• Assuming every 737 at Air Inuit is a passenger aircraft – most of the jets are Combis or pure freighters.
• Mixing up the Dash 8 and ATR – landing gear in the engine nacelle means Dash 8.
• Taking the 737-200C for granted – it is being replaced by the 737-800.

Conclusion

Air Inuit is an airline with a mission: it keeps Nunavik’s Inuit villages connected to the world, belongs to the people on the ground and flies a fleet built for gravel, snow and cargo. For spotters it offers the Dash 8 in many variants, the Twin Otter in scheduled service and, with the 737-200C, a classic whose days are numbered.