World Traveller 73 
Review: Air North B737-5, Kelowna – Vancouver
Air North offers unusual service between select points within British Columbia and the Yukon Territory in western Canada. Air North remains one of the few independent air carriers in Canada, offer offering niche service to and from the Yukon territory. Today’s flight would have me fly on Air North between Vancouver and Kelowna on one of their alternate routes. They offer this flight once or twice a day and are competing against Air Canada and WestJet that offer a much more flexible schedule. Instead Air North usually offers quite a discount on this flight and route, given its lack of flexibility in terms of timings. Read on to see how my air experience with Air North fared.
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Review: Air North B737-5, Kelowna International Airport – Vancouver International Airport
I had a weekend trip between Vancouver International Airport, and Kelowna International Airport in the Province of British Columbia, Canada. On this weekend, on Saturday morning, the Air Canada flights were pricing at three times an Air North Flight. With loyalty programs being a lot less than what they used to be, I decided to go with the cheapest option. As a result, I went with the Air north flight for different flight experience.
Air North is a quirky carrier that is headquartered in the capital city of Whitehorse in the Yukon territory. Air North operates a small fleet of eleven aircraft consisting of one Boeing 737-400, four Boeing 737 500’s, and two Boeing 737-800’s. Air North also use four ATR-72 aircraft, which are usually only seen within the Yukon territory.
Air North’s focus is to fly passengers and cargo across a limited route network between Whitehorse and Vancouver, Kelowna, Victoria, Calgary, Edmonton, Dawson City, Old Crow, Mayo, and Inuvik. In this case, Air North runs a dog leg flight between Kelowna – Vancouver – Whitehorse using the same aircraft. Since they are head to head with Air Canada and WestJet, you can often find excellent flight deals between the Vancouver – Kelowna segment when the aircraft is mostly empty.
Departing from Vancouver International Airport:
I had an easy Air North check in at the Kelowna International Airport. Old school Air North does not offer a smart phone app or any other fancy mobile check-in services. Instead, it was a visit to the airport in order to get fully checked in.
While you can check in online via the Internet, you will not get a fancy Apple wallet pass for your mobile device. Instead, I checked in at the Air North check-in desks in the Kelowna International Airport. At the time of my visit, Air North was located in the far left-hand side of the domestic check-in terminal.
Air North offers a complimentary checked bag with all of its fares. While I was travelling with carry-on baggage, only, I didn’t need to use the checked baggage service. However, it’s nice to have it available without having to pay an extra fee unlike the major carriers.
Air North does happen to charge for a seat assignment. Since this was a short flight of less than an hour, I didn’t really care where I sat. As a result, I didn’t pay for a seat assignment. I waited for a check in, in order to be automatically assigned a seat. My seat assignment ended up being a window row in Seat 2A near the front of the plane. It ended up being beneficial to wait, in my circumstances.
After checking in, I proceeded through Nexus security. There isn’t too much to do on the secure side of the Kelowna International Airport as a result I ended up just waiting near the gate. The Kelowna International Airport uses podium boarding, with a scramble on the other side of the podium to the jet Bridge.
Boarding occurred approximately 30 minutes prior to departure time. I made my way on board and settled into the Air North cabin.
Each of Air North’s planes are named after elements of the Yukon territories. Today’s plane was named after Vuntut Gwitchin which is also known as the city of Old Crow in the northern Yukon Territory.
Air North
4N 570 – Economy Class
YLW – YVR (Kelowna International Airport – Vancouver International Airport)
Aug 3, 2025
Scheduled: 5:10 PM – 6:35 PM
Booked: Boeing 737-500
Flown: Boeing 737-500
On Board Air North:
For their medium haul flights, Air North runs a Boeing 737 fleet. It is an old-school fleet without many modern conveniences such as flight monitors or integrated smart phone or tablet holders in the seat-backs. Today’s flight was on their mid range Boeing 737 500 product.
Given that Air north cabins are old school, you’ll end up seated in a nice puffy leather seat that is reminiscent of flying from yester years. The seats are almost identical to the Canadian North flight I took last month. The Air North Boeing 737-500 offers 3 – 3 configuration economy seating in a single class of service cabin.
The cabin features the older previous generation large Boeing 737 cabin windows. The windows offer a vintage view out of the plane.
There is ample legroom between the seats. The seats are generally quite comfortable, without much to complain about for a short one hour flight.
I am still a tall person at 185 cm but I had enough legroom. I had a seat mate with me, so I didn’t get the opportunity to stretch out diagonally for a little extra legroom.
In terms of decoration, the cabin itself isn’t super exciting. The cabin views offered a simple, white bulkhead panel, unlike Alaska Airlines that used to offer a fancy Navajo inspired fabric pattern.
The Air North Boeing 737–500 series also had old school individual air vents located above each passenger seat. As many readers will attest to, I appreciated having a personal air vent as it made for a more comfortable flight.
In summary, the air north cabin was functional and straightforward. It was about what I would’ve expected from an all economy class cabin on an older Boeing 737 product. The seating was mostly comfortable with a reasonable amount of legroom.
Departing Kelowna International Airport:
We had an on-time departure from Kelowna International Airport. The flight had a short taxi to the end of the runway without any other airplane traffic. We were on a southern track for departure and ascended to altitude with Kelowna valley views.
Before we knew it, our Air North bright orange engine cowling on our bright orange and white livery plane headed towards Vancouver and well into the Pacific Coastal mountains
The Meal: There wasn’t one
Given that this was a short flight, there was absolutely no meal or beverage service. I wouldn’t normally expect refreshments on a flight under one hour. This flight was no exception.
In Flight Entertainment:
air north didn’t offer any in-flight entertainment. There are no screens or projectors on this flight. If you’re hoping for a movie, you better have brought one on your smart phone or tablet.
Instead I read the Yukon north of ordinary, in-flight magazine. Well, most other airlines have done away with in-flight magazines Air north still publishes one. I find that most northern carriers continue to publish an in-flight magazine as it’s a good way to connect local providers with travellers coming into their area.
More interestingly, I went to the Air north routes and fleet map. I was able to spend time catching up on their oddball airline fleet, along with their strange route map. Since air North is not part of any airline alliance, their route map is more like a continuing train segment with stops, versus a hub and spoke model.
After a short 40 minutes, we started our descent into Vancouver International Airport.
Arriving to Vancouver International Airport:
I had an “as can be expected” arrival into Vancouver. We joined the queue of aircraft on approach and eventually arrived, taxing over to the Vancouver International Airport “A” gates.
The Vancouver International Airport “A” gates are where all the leftover airlines are assigned at Vancouver International Airport the terminal serves Air North, Flair Airlines, and the occasional WestJet flight.
I was able to see some of the other Air North fleet on their way to and from Whitehorse.
I disembarked into the Vancouver International Airport terminal and made my way over to Park and Fly for my trip home.
I didn’t have any bags to collect from baggage claim. As such, I was on my way home quite quickly.
The Bottom Line: Air North
Air North offers a substantial amount of value as compared to the legacy carriers of Air Canada and WestJet. In addition to offering, complimentary checked baggage, the airline usually offers a much cheaper fare structure. There is the potential to get excellent value.
While the carrier does not offer a frequent flyer program, if you’re on a budget, Air North may be able to offer a better value proposition compared to other carriers. With my experience, I wouldn’t hesitate to fly them again.
World Traveller 73 
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