Air Canada Jazz managed to launch some flights from the Northwest Territories capital over the weekend after an extreme cold snap ground the airline's flights in and out of Yellowknife last week.

On both Sunday and Monday, the morning flight to Vancouver was cancelled, but afternoon flights to Calgary and Edmonton departed on schedule, according to Air Canada's website.

Air Canada Jazz officials have maintained that the company's regional jets, the Bombardier CRJs, are not certified to operate when temperatures reach below -40 C. Temperatures in the city have hovered between -35 C and -45 C since last Sunday, conditions that officials said were extraordinary.

As a result, south-bound air travellers had their flights rebooked on Canadian North and First Air, two northern airlines that have aircraft certified to fly in colder temperatures.

Even First Air's eight ATR 42-300 turboprop airplanes are certified to fly in temperatures as cold as -54 C, spokesman Chris Ferris told CBC News.

"In the case of the ATR, we worked with the manufacturer to get them certified to the extreme cold temperatures," Ferris said.

Air Canada Jazz officials have declined to be interviewed on the issue.

In an e-mail to CBC News sent Friday, spokeswoman Debra Williams said officials have spoken with Bombardier, which manufactures the CRJ aircraft, about certifying the Yellowknife-bound regional jets for colder temperatures.

"We believe that this is still the right aircraft to fly in and out of Yellowknife, and it's a perfectly safe aircraft," Bombardier spokesman Marc Duschesne told CBC News in an interview.

"It's the best of the best in the regional jets. During the remainder of the year, the aircraft can easily fly in and out of Yellowknife without any problems."

When asked why Air Canada Jazz did not bring in other types of aircraft while the CRJs were grounded, Williams' e-mail stated that such a decision would rest with Air Canada, the parent company of Air Canada Jazz.