Kingston Airport , also known as Norman Rogers Airport, is a regional airport located west of the core of Kingston,

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central C ...

, Canada. The airport is named after former MP Norman McLeod Rogers (

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 cit ...

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 in Prime Minister

William Lyon Mackenzie King William Lyon Mackenzie King (December 17, 1874 – July 22, 1950) was a Canadian statesman and politician who served as the tenth prime minister of Canada for three non-consecutive terms from 1921 to 1926, 1926 to 1930, and 1935 to 1948. A L ...

's cabinet. Rogers died in a plane crash on June 10, 1940 while flying from Ottawa to

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anch ...

for a speaking engagement.

History

Before 1940, Kingston was served only by the Kingston Airfield, a grass strip just north of the city's downtown, which closed in 1942. In 1940, during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

, an airfield was built to the west of Kingston to serve as a training station for the

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) an ...

's No. 31 Service Flying Training School (SFTS). The school provided advanced flight training in

Battle A battle is an occurrence of combat in warfare between opposing military units of any number or size. A war usually consists of multiple battles. In general, a battle is a military engagement that is well defined in duration, area, and force ...

and Harvard aircraft. In 1942 the school became part of the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan (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 wor ...

s and

Anson Anson may refer to: People * Anson (name), a give name and surname ** Anson family, a British aristocratic family with the surname Place names ;United States * Anson, Indiana * Anson, Kansas * Anson, Maine ** Anson (CDP), Maine * Anson, Missour ...

s. 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, 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 ...

). 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 an ...

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 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 within ...

announced that it would begin regular passenger service between Kingston and

Montréal–Trudeau International Airport Montréal–Trudeau International Airport (french: Aéroport International Montréal-Trudeau) or Montréal–Trudeau, formerly known and still commonly referred to as Montréal–Dorval International Airport (''Aéroport international Montré ...

starting March 14, 2022. On January 11, 2022 the City of Kingston announced that once again, it has partnered with FlyGTA Airlines 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 In aviation, the instrument landing system (ILS) is a precision radio navigation system that provides short-range guidance to aircraft to allow them to approach a runway at night or in bad weather. In its original form, it allows an aircraft to ...

servicing Runway 19, on the frequency 111.3 MHz. Kingston also has a

non-directional beacon A non-directional beacon (NDB) or non-directional radio beacon is a radio beacon which does not include directional information. Radio beacons are radio transmitters at a known location, used as an aviation or marine navigational aid. NDB are i ...

(NDB) that transmits "YGK" in Morse code on the

longwave In radio, longwave, long wave or long-wave, and commonly abbreviated LW, refers to parts of the radio spectrum with wavelengths longer than what was originally called the medium-wave broadcasting band. The term is historic, dating from the e ...

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 o ...

. The airport also supports a large amount of

general aviation General aviation (GA) is defined by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) as all civil aviation aircraft operations with the exception of commercial air transport or aerial work, which is defined as specialized aviation services ...

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. Internat ...

Nav Canada Nav Canada (styled as NAV CANADA) is a privately run, not-for-profit corporation that owns and operates Canada's civil air navigation system (ANS). It was established in accordance with the ''Civil Air Navigation Services Commercialization Act ...

and is staffed by the Canada Border Services Agency. 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