Kingston Airport , also known as Norman Rogers Airport, is a regional airport located west of the core of Kingston, Ontario, Canada. The airport is named after former MP

Norman McLeod Rogers Norman McLeod Rogers (July 25, 1894 – June 10, 1940) was a Canadian lawyer and statesman. He served as the Member of Parliament for Kingston, Ontario, Canada and as a cabinet minister in the government of Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzi ...

(

Kingston City Kingston City was a federal electoral district represented in the House of Commons of Canada from 1925 to 1953. It was located in the province of Ontario. This riding was created in 1924 from parts of Kingston riding. It consisted of the city ...

1935–1940),

Minister of Labour Minister of Labour (in British English) or Labor (in American English) is typically a cabinet-level position with portfolio responsibility for setting national labour standards, labour dispute mechanisms, employment, workforce participation, traini ...

and then

National Defence National security, or national defence, is the security and defence of a sovereign state, including its citizens, economy, and institutions, which is regarded as a duty of government. Originally conceived as protection against military attac ...

in Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King's cabinet. Rogers died in a plane crash on June 10, 1940 while flying from Ottawa to Toronto for a speaking engagement.

History

Before 1940, Kingston was served only by the

Kingston Airfield Kingston Airfield, in Kingston, Ontario, Canada, operated from 1929–1942 as Kingston's first airport. It consisted of a grass strip and supporting buildings in what is now the ''Kingscourt'' subdivision of the city, just to the west of the S ...

, a grass strip just north of the city's downtown, which closed in 1942. In 1940, during the Second World War, an airfield was built to the west of Kingston to serve as a training station for the Royal Air Force's No. 31 Service Flying Training School (SFTS). The school provided advanced flight training in Battle and

Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher l ...

aircraft. In 1942 the school became part of the

British Commonwealth Air Training Plan The British Commonwealth Air Training Plan (BCATP), or Empire Air Training Scheme (EATS) often referred to as simply "The Plan", was a massive, joint military aircrew training program created by the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Ze ...

(BCATP). The BCATP's No. 14 Service Flying Training School moved to Kingston in 1944 and merged with the RAF school. No. 14 SFTS used Harvards,

Yale Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the worl ...

s and Ansons. The airport's runway outline displays the classic BCATP triangle pattern. A decommissioned yellow Harvard aircraft now stands on a pedestal near the airport entrance to commemorate the airport's wartime role. In 1953, naval air squadron VC 921 was formed as a tender to

HMCS Cataraqui HMCS ''Cataraqui'' is a Canadian Forces Naval Reserve Division (NRD) located in Kingston, Ontario. Dubbed a stone frigate, HMCS ''Cataraqui'' is a land-based naval establishment for part-time sailors as well as a local recruitment centre for the ...

, and used the airport. The unit operated Harvards and one C-45D Expeditor until it was disbanded in 1959. The airport was transferred to city control in 1972. The airport was originally built with six runways; however, this was reduced to three, as they were all parallel runways. One can still see where some parts of the parallel runways were from the air. Later, runway 01/19 was extended northwards to a length of to handle larger aircraft, and it is planned to be extended to (the prevailing wind is from the south off

Lake Ontario Lake Ontario is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is bounded on the north, west, and southwest by the Canadian province of Ontario, and on the south and east by the U.S. state of New York. The Canada–United States border span ...

). Runway 07/25 was extended northeastwards to a length of nearly , with no plans to extend it, due to the requirements for certified airports on runways over a certain length. The remaining runway, 12/30, was decommissioned in 2003 and converted to a taxiway. In 2018, the city began on extending the runway 01/19 from 5,000 ft to 6,001 ft. At the same time, the terminal was under construction with plans to expand the post security waiting area to accommodate larger aircraft such as a 737 or Q400. Construction is also underway at the departure and arrival areas to accommodate more passengers as well as a general renovation to make it more inviting and accessible.

Air Canada Air Canada is the flag carrier and the largest airline of Canada by the size and passengers carried. Air Canada maintains its headquarters in the borough of Saint-Laurent, Montreal, Quebec. The airline, founded in 1937, provides scheduled and ...

indefinitely suspended its operations at Kingston Airport in June 2020 because of the financial impact of the

COVID-19 pandemic in Canada The COVID-19 pandemic in Canada is part of the ongoing worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (). It is caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (). Most cases over the course of the pandemic have been in Ontario, Que ...

. On August 31, 2020,

FlyGTA Airlines FLYGTA Inc., operating as FLYGTA Airlines, established in 2014, is a Canadian air operator serving southern Ontario and Quebec. FLYGTA is a jet charter company with official bases in Toronto, Niagara, Oshawa, Muskoka, and Montreal, and provides a ...

announced that it would begin regular passenger service four days per week between Kingston and

Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport is a regional airport located on the Toronto Islands in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is often referred to as Toronto Island Airport and was previously known as ''Port George VI Island Airport'' and ''Toronto ...

on September 10. However, due to COVID, the airline stopped running this service on December 10, 2020. On December 9, 2021,

Pascan Aviation 9736140 Canada Inc., doing business as Pascan Aviation, is a regional airline based in Longueuil, Quebec, Canada. Based at Montreal Saint-Hubert Longueuil Airport in the Saint-Hubert borough of Longueuil, Pascan operates scheduled flights withi ...

announced that it would begin regular passenger service between Kingston and Montréal–Trudeau International Airport starting March 14, 2022. On January 11, 2022 the City of Kingston announced that once again, it has partnered with

to offer passenger service between Kingston and Toronto starting January 31, 2022. On December 1, 2022 the City of Kingston announced that

will be pausing their air service at YGK Airport as of January 6, 2023. The pause in service means that Kingston will be losing its only regular passenger airline service, at least temporarily.

Airlines and destinations

Passenger

Cargo

Frequencies

Kingston Airport services two frequencies: ATIS (135.550 MHz) and radio (122.500 MHz). There is also guidance for private aircraft needing fuel or parking on Kingston Flying Club Advisory (122.800 MHz). There is an instrument landing system servicing Runway 19, on the frequency 111.3 MHz. Kingston also has a non-directional beacon (NDB) that transmits "YGK" in Morse code on the longwave radio frequency of 263 kHz.YGK Kingston
- ourairports.com

Operations

Kingston is a

mandatory frequency airport An airport with a mandatory frequency (MF), mandatory traffic advisory frequency (MTAF) or air/ground radio (A/G) is an airport which does not have a control tower but still requires arriving and departing aircraft to communicate with other aircra ...

with an operating

flight service station A flight service station (FSS) is an air traffic facility that provides information and services to aircraft pilots before, during, and after flights, but unlike air traffic control (ATC), is not responsible for giving instructions or clearances or ...

. The airport also supports a large amount of general aviation traffic, including flight training and general recreational flying. As one of the only public airports to offer an ILS approach along the corridor between Montréal–Trudeau and Toronto–Pearson (along with Ottawa Macdonald–Cartier), the Kingston airport is an important alternate during poor weather conditions. Kingston Flying Club, a flight school and charter operation, is located in hangar #5. The airport is classified as an

airport of entry In general, a port of entry (POE) is a place where one may lawfully enter a country. It typically has border security staff and facilities to check passports and visas and to inspect luggage to assure that contraband is not imported. Internatio ...

by Nav Canada and is staffed by the

Canada Border Services Agency The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA; french: Agence des services frontaliers du Canada, ''ASFC'') is a federal law enforcement agency that is responsible for border control (i.e. protection and surveillance), immigration enforcement, and cust ...

. CBSA officers at this airport can handle aircraft with no more than 30 passengers.

References

External links

*
Page about this airport
on COPA's ''Places to Fly'' airport directory {{DEFAULTSORT:Kingston Norman Rogers Airport Certified airports in Ontario Airports of the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan Transport in Kingston, Ontario Buildings and structures in Kingston, Ontario