Canadian North

Canadian North flies the Arctic routes that hold the eastern and western North together, serving Nunavut and the Northwest Territories from southern gateways. These are long, thinly populated sectors where the aircraft often carries people and freight on the same flight, and the schedule is built around communities that have few other links south.

Every seat map we hold for the airline is a single economy cabin. Seat choice here is practical rather than aspirational: legroom rows, quieter positions and how the cabin length changes on the combi aircraft that also carries cargo.

The fleet we map is built around the Boeing 737, in several generations from the classic 737-300 and 737-400 through to the Next Generation 737-700. The older classics do a lot of the northern lifting, and one of them is a combi.

The 737-400 combi is the one to understand before you book. It splits the fuselage into a passenger cabin up front and a freight hold behind a bulkhead, so the seating stops well short of where a normal 737-400 would end. That gives a shorter cabin with fewer rows to choose from.

All the 737s here run a single economy class in the standard three-and-three layout, so every row has a window pair, a middle and an aisle on each side. Comfort is consistent across the classics and the Next Generation aircraft, with the newer 737-700 feeling a little quieter at cruise.

On the combi, the passenger cabin ends at the cargo bulkhead, so the rearmost seats sit against a solid wall rather than a galley or a rank of lavatories. That changes where the noise and the recline limits fall compared with a full-length 737.

On the full-length 737s, the exit rows offer the most legroom in the cabin and are the seats to ask for on the longer northern sectors. Seats immediately in front of an exit sometimes have limited recline, so check the row behind before you commit.

On the 737-400 combi, remember the cabin is short: the back rows sit against the freight bulkhead, which can mean a firmer wall behind you and less recline in the last row. For a window on any of these aircraft, avoid the rows where the wing fills the view, and sit forward of the engines if you want the quieter half of the cabin.