Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I have a return to an oral question asked by Mr. Ootes on November 4th, in regard to transpolar flights.
On Wednesday, November 4, 1998, the Member for Yellowknife Centre asked me about the implications for the Northwest Territories of Russia opening up its national airspace for transpolar commercial flights.
Geographically, transpolar air routes are often the most direct and efficient great circle routes to and from points on the earth's northern hemisphere. During the Cold War, potential routes across Russian airspace were closed to international traffic. Given the vast size of Russian airspace, this imposed tremendous distortions and inefficiencies on the routing of international traffic. The promised opening of Russian airspace will prove a great blessing for the air industry in time and fuel savings. In turn, literally everyone in the world stands to gain from the new shorter and less expensive transpolar routes.
For all that, the opening of a transpolar route across Russia, will have almost no effect on the Northwest Territories. Commercial air carriers have been flying transpolar routes over the Northwest Territories for many years now. Very few transpolar flights have occasion to land at our airports and when they do, it is most often for passenger-related reasons. The new Russian routes will certainly generate more transpolar traffic but this will have little or no direct impact on the Northwest Territories or our airport system. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.