Even though the ice in the Arctic is shrinking and it looks like very soon we will be seeing our first ice free summer in the region, there is still the matter of Arctic winters when it comes to transporting goods up North. Ice roads are used in the colder months for delivering and moving cargo, but even at the best of times this is a dangerous route.

An upcoming conference on airship travel has organizers hoping that they can convince industry and business in the Arctic that using airships for transportation is a year round solution.

From October 7^th to 9^th, the fifth annual Airships to the Arctic business conference will take place in Calgary. The event is sponsored by Van Horne Institute at the University of Calgary.

Barry Prentice, professor of supply chain management at the Asper School of Business at the University of Manitoba says that cargo airships have the potential to become an economical way to get resources and cargo to and from Arctic communities.

Interest in airships as a means of delivering cargo is growing, especially among mining companies and some other stakeholders in the Arctic, but Prentice said that commercial development of using airships is still fairly new.

“As soon as we see that first big airship is in the sky, there will be a stampede of aerospace companies to get into this business, because everybody will realize that there’s an opportunity and they don’t want to be left out,” said Prentice. “The problem is, no one wants to be first.” Prentice is also the president of ISO Polar Airships, a not-for-profit airship research institute.

Skyhook International, in conjunction with Boeing Canada is building an airship in Western Canada. The first Skyhook HVL aircraft will take its maiden voyage in 2014. There are currently more than 16 companies worldwide with airship projects in the test phase.