Joseph Sparling Jr.
Joe Sparling was born in Whitehorse to parents Gudrun and Joseph Sparling. He left home to complete his education and has an MBA from the University of British Columbia, and a BSc from Carlton University.1)
Sparling visited his grandparents in the summers, doing odd jobs and helping around the Regina Hotel they owned. There was a Learn to Fly special at the airport that he took advantage of. He bought a Cessna 172 to build up his hours, and while he was completing university, he got his commercial pilot’s license.2)
In 1977, Sparling and Tom Woods offered to rent the Cessna to the owner of the flying school, and he asked them to buy his company, which they did. They founded Air North and started with the school’s Cessna 206, Sparling’s Cessna 172, and two leased planes. They were flying bush planes for miners and tourists, and at the peak had fourteen different planes of eight or nine different types. They decided to focus on airline operations and reduce the types of planes as much as possible.3)
By the mid-1980s Air North was flying scheduled flights in Yukon and into Alaska and competing with Canadian Pacific and Air Canada.4) Air North won the Business of Year award from the Whitehorse Chamber of Commerce in 2006 for its effect on the local economy.5) The airline has since added flights outside the Yukon and continues to grow.