St. Thomas Municipal Airport located east of St. Thomas, Ontario, Canada is a small airport serving the general aviation needs of the area. It was established in 1941 as an air training base for the

British Commonwealth Air Training Program 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 Zea ...

. The base was operated by the

Department of National Defence Department of Defence or Department of Defense may refer to: Current departments of defence * Department of Defence (Australia) * Department of National Defence (Canada) * Department of Defence (Ireland) * Department of National Defense (Philipp ...

until the late 1940s as a relief field for No. 14 Service Flying Training School Aylmer, Ontario and No. 4 Bombing & Gunnery School Fingal, Ontario. It has six runways, and four IFR approaches. St Thomas ON Municipal Airport

The airport is classified as an airport of entry 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 cu ...

(CBSA) on a call-out basis from the London International Airport. CBSA officers at this airport can handle general aviation aircraft only, with no more than 15 passengers. The airport was purchased by the City of St. Thomas in 1970. The runways were built approximately long, but the main east west runway (09/27) was expanded to in 1982. The airport is in uncontrolled airspace but has a UNICOM operating during working hours on 122.70 MHz. There are two

flight training Flight training is a course of study used when learning to pilot an aircraft. The overall purpose of primary and intermediate flight training is the acquisition and honing of basic airmanship skills. Flight training can be conducted under a str ...

schools operating out of the airport, one for fixed wing and one for helicopter. There are many agricultural aircraft in the summer. In 2002 St. Thomas reported 27,456 aircraft movements, but over the following years the numbers dropped. In 2003 there were 17,371, followed by 13,720 in 2004 and 12,575 in 2005. In 2006 there were 944 movements reported during a 24-day period in January, and no more reports were made for the rest of the year. Runway 15/33 has been listed as closed since at least August 2017. The current NOTAM indicates that it was supposed to reopen in August 2020.

Historical aerodrome information

In approximately 1942 the aerodrome was listed as "RCAF Aerodrome - St. Thomas, Ontario" at with a variation of 5 degrees west and elevation of . The field was listed as "all hard surfaced" and had three runways listed as follows:

BCATP buildings from 1941

File:RCAF St. Thomas Pumphouse.JPG, Pumphouse File:RCAF St. Thomas Hangar Airside.JPG, Hangar, apron side File:RCAF St. Thomas Hangar Furnace Side.JPG, Hangar, furnace end File:RCAF St. Thomas Hangar Door Side.JPG, Hangar, doors

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Thomas Airport Certified airports in Ontario Buildings and structures in St. Thomas, Ontario Transport in St. Thomas, Ontario Aviation history of Canada Saint Thomas Municipal Airport

BCATP 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 Z ...

Military airbases in Ontario Military history of Ontario