Up and Homecoming: Melissa Haney Lands the Role of Air Inuit’s First Female Inuk Captain
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Air Inuit’s first female Inuk captain, Melissa Haney, describes how she found empowerment through flying, and how she’s using her wings to encourage aspiring female and Indigenous aviators.
As told by Melissa Haney to Katie Sehl
When I was growing up, it never crossed my mind that I could actually be a pilot. Had someone come up and asked me what I’d like to do, I don’t know what I would have said, but it wouldn’t have been pilot. That’s 100 percent sure – even though I loved going to the airport. In Inukjuak, the northern village that I’m from in Nunavik, Quebec, the only way to get in and out is by airplane. Being on the airplane, leaving the vast tundra behind us and then all of a sudden seeing city lights on the horizon during part of the journey down south to Montreal, was always my favorite.
Even when I started as a 19-year-old flight attendant, if I had told myself that one day I’d be captain, I wouldn’t have believed it. But Air Inuit is a special airline. There were a few times I was able to sit with the pilots up front because we didn’t have passengers on board. They were doing all of their work flows, and it was almost like they were performing choreography. After they started up the engines and took off, I just fell in love. On clear days leaving Montreal toward Hudson Bay, we’d see the Laurentians, boreal forest, icebergs and northern lights. We’d fly through challenging crosswinds and heavy fogs. And every time we’d land the plane on a small runway, I would think that pilots are the most amazing people in the world.
Once I got into the flight deck, my inner Beyoncé came out. Beyoncé says when she goes on stage that she has a second name, an alter ego. When I’m flying, I see myself in a similar way. I’m usually shy and reserved, but in the sky, this second person emerges who is almost like a superwoman. She’s confident in what she’s doing and she knows what she wants to do. She can captain a plane through 30-knot crosswinds when the weather isn’t good. She can take a 43,000-pound plane and put it on a 3,500-foot runway. She’s fearless.
After I became captain on the Dash-8 Combi 300, I was scheduled to land in Inukjuak for the first time. I was flying up the Hudson Bay coast and we were running a little bit late. Usually our stops are quite fast because we fly to a few villages throughout the day. We drop people off, pick people up, and we’re on our way again. I was getting ready to head to the next village when someone asked me to come inside. I told them that I really had to get going, but they insisted that I come. Inside there was a sea of people, including a lot of my family, holding posters and signs congratulating me on becoming the first female Inuk pilot to reach the rank of captain with Air Inuit. Each of the passengers got a piece of cake, so they were okay with the delay. We’re able to do things like that at Air Inuit.
With time and experience you learn to understand the weather up North. If I’m going into a certain community and the winds are coming in a certain direction, I know that it’s probably going to be turbulent on final. If the winds are coming from the bay, it’s probably going to be foggy. But conditions can change quickly. One morning we left Salluit and there were no clouds in the sky at all. But by the time we flew 30 minutes inland, picked up hunters and flew back, a fog had rolled in. It was like someone took a cloud and put it on the runway. We were able to land on an old runway about a mile west and take shelter in a cabin. People came over from town on boats with food.
The hunters went hunting and we all got a piece of caribou. At the end of the day, the weather cleared up, so we took off and landed back in Salluit. Inuit know that Mother Nature is the boss, and if you need shelter or protection, you can go and use a cabin somewhere. It will be unlocked, and you can open it up and use it. They know that if the weather’s not good, we don’t go. If there are geese or caribou around to hunt, or if it’s a nice day to go fishing, the Inuit will. Sometimes that means we land and fewer agents show up. If you want the plane to take off again, you have to help unload and load the baggage, or fuel the airplane. In the winter, we have to assist in putting tents on the plane and plugging in oil heaters so the plane stays warm throughout the night. It’s the reality of the North. Like the weather, you have to accept it.
Over the last three years, I’ve received a lot of press for becoming the first female Inuk to earn my wings with Air Inuit, and it’s important to me to use the attention to encourage more women and Indigenous people to get involved in aviation. At Air Inuit, we have roughly the same percentage of Inuit pilots as there are female pilots: about 12 percent. We’re proud of it because we’re well above the international average, but it’s still not a great number. You wouldn’t want to get 12 percent on a test. We have a subsidized pilot training program that I coordinate at Air Inuit called Sparrows. If someone is a Nunavik beneficiary who wants to get their pilot’s license and has their high school diploma, they can apply for the program that will support them through the process. It’s really special to be able to fly for your community and for your airline – after all, it’s the Inuit that own Air Inuit.
Through my work with Elevate Aviation, an Edmonton-based organization that supports women in the industry, I hope to have the same effect. It’s also become a habit for me, when I’m walking through Montreal-Trudeau International Airport in my uniform, to make eye contact with young girls that I see and smile. Maybe that girl doesn’t even know what uniform I’m wearing. But if there’s a click or a connection, maybe one day she’ll know she can be a pilot, too. If there’s one girl in Inukjuak who wants to become a pilot, it would make the work I’ve done worth it. I believe that there must be at least one.
“Up and Homecoming” was originally published in the 9.5 December/January issue of APEX Experience magazine.