July 29, 2025 – Flight from Victoria to Vancouver and onward to Whitehorse

2025 Yukon & Northwest Territories

This morning, a Lincoln Navigator from LA Limousine takes me and two others who live nearby to Victoria airport. We meet our tour director Alistair and then check in at the Air North counter. Our flight to Whitehorse is delayed by 1.5 hours due to air traffic controller staffing issues in Vancouver, where we need to stop to board more passengers before flying to Whitehorse. The aircraft is at the gate, but here we sit in the waiting area.

Once loaded, there are about 50 passengers are on this Boeing 737-400, so there’s lots of space in the cabin! We takeoff from YYJ at 1:32pm and land at YVR at 1:47pm – a 15 minute flight. It is clear and sunny as we fly over the southern Gulf Islands and Fraser River delta before landing in Vancouver.

Once we’re at the gate in Vancouver, some passengers disembark and others embark, completely filling the cabin. We take off at 2:15pm, after a very slow taxi from the gate to the runway. It is a 2 hour and 5 minute flight to Whitehorse according to the captain. A meal is served mid-flight: a choice of 3 sandwiches, beverage and Air North’s signature warm chocolate chip cookie. There are some beautiful views of the Coast Mountain range on our flight north (see twin glaciers in banner image above).

We land in Whitehorse at 4:40PM, and there is a bus waiting to transfer our group of 22 to the Sternwheeler Hotel for two nights. We meet downstairs an hour later for a welcome dinner. Most of us have the Arctic Char, which is a local northern salmon served with a nice cream sauce, veggies and marinara rice. A drink is included, as well as a warm brownie and ice cream for dessert. Our tour director Alistair welcomes everyone, we introduce ourselves, Alistair shares some procedures for the tour and reviews what the tour will look like in the coming days.