Record-Breaking Flight Plan Departing from the North Pole Filed with NAV
CANADA

OTTAWA , Dec. 23 /CNW Telbec/ - NAV CANADA reports that a flight plan for an aircraft departing the North Pole on December 24, 2009 has been filed with millions of destinations in Canada and around the world.

NAV CANADA says it has not handled a flight plan of this size for about a year noting that this breaks the record that was set on December 24-25 2008 by a Mr. K Kringle .

NAV CANADA does not reveal the identity of pilots filing flight plans but an unnamed source confirmed that it is Mr. Kringle . "The paperwork says Kris Kringle, but everyone knows him as Santa Claus ," said the NAV CANADA source speaking on the condition of anonymity.

The details are confidential, but NAV CANADA has confirmed that aircraft will carry a huge cargo of brightly coloured packages and will fly at a tremendous speed guided by a flashing red light at the nose of the craft.

"That red light makes the aircraft's nose so bright. It worked especially well on one foggy Christmas Eve several years back," recalled one air traffic controller.

A new feature of this year's special flight will be high-tech equipment on board the sleigh that will allow NAV CANADA to pick up the flight as it flies over Hudson Bay on the Company's new Automatic Dependent Surveillance - Broadcast (ADS-B) System.

In the past, when it flew over the 850,000 square kilometres of Hudson Bay the sleigh would disappear from the radar screens because of the lack of surveillance coverage. "That was always a concern, but the situation has now been resolved with our new ADS-B system around the Bay and the North Pole's decision to invest in the on-board equipment," says a NAV CANADA spokesperson.

NAV CANADA will be hard at work on Christmas ensuring that the normal air traffic control, flight information and advisory services, are provided for this special flight and all other aircraft - with technical operations and engineering support - as we do 365 days a year.

NAV CANADA , the country's civil air navigation services provider, is a private sector, non-share capital corporation financed through publicly-traded debt. With operations coast to coast, NAV CANADA provides air traffic control, flight information, weather briefings, aeronautical information services, airport advisory services and electronic aids to navigation.

For further information: John Morris, Director, Communications, [phone]; Ron Singer, Manager, Media Relations, [phone]