Yarmouth Airport is a registered aerodrome located in

Yarmouth County Yarmouth County is a rural county in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia. It has both traditional Anglo- Scottish and Acadian French culture as well as significant inland wilderness areas, including over 365 lakes and several major rivers. It c ...

Nova Scotia Nova Scotia ( ; ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. Nova Scotia is Latin for "New Scotland". Most of the population are native Eng ...

, Canada. It began as a

World War II 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 opposing ...

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 ...

training base. 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). CBSA officers at this airport can handle aircraft with no more than 110 passengers or 225 if offloaded in stages.

History

Second World War

In 1936, the Department of National Defence selected the site as a base for

Maritime patrol {{Unreferenced, date=March 2008 Maritime patrol is the task of monitoring areas of water. Generally conducted by military and law enforcement agencies, maritime patrol is usually aimed at identifying human activities. Maritime patrol refers to ac ...

aircraft An aircraft is a vehicle that is able to fly by gaining support from the air. It counters the force of gravity by using either static lift or by using the dynamic lift of an airfoil, or in a few cases the downward thrust from jet engine ...

. The airport land was owned by Frederick Eyre and it was taken by the government against his will to build the airport. The airbase had two parts, East Camp and West Camp. The West Camp was home to the

Royal Canadian Air Force The Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF; french: Aviation royale canadienne, ARC) is the air and space force of Canada. Its role is to "provide the Canadian Forces with relevant, responsive and effective airpower". The RCAF is one of three environm ...

while the East Camp was part of the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan. At East Camp, the Royal Air Force's No. 34 Operational Training Unit (OTU) was located at Yarmouth from April 1942 to June 1942, when it was relocated to RCAF Station Pennfield Ridge,

New Brunswick New Brunswick (french: Nouveau-Brunswick, , locally ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. It is the only province with both English and ...

. In November 1942 the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against ...

established the No. 1 Naval Air Gunnery School (NAGS), flying the

Fairey Swordfish The Fairey Swordfish is a biplane torpedo bomber, designed by the Fairey Aviation Company. Originating in the early 1930s, the Swordfish, nicknamed "Stringbag", was principally operated by the Fleet Air Arm of the Royal Navy. It was also us ...

. No. 1 NAGS ceased operations in March 1945. In addition to the Naval Air Gunnery School, several individual squadrons and units called RCAF Yarmouth home at various times during the war, including: * No. 5 Squadron RCAF, from August 1944 to May 1945, flying the Consolidated Catalina Mk. 1; * No. 113 Squadron RCAF, from February 1942 to May 1943, flying the

Lockheed Hudson The Lockheed Hudson is a light bomber and coastal reconnaissance aircraft built by the American Lockheed Aircraft Corporation. It was initially put into service by the Royal Air Force shortly before the outbreak of the Second World War and p ...

. A 113 Squadron Hudson flying from Yarmouth sank U-754 on 31 July 1942, Eastern Air Command's first kill; * No. 119 Squadron RCAF, from July 1940 to January 1942, flying the Bristol Bolingbroke; * No. 160 Squadron RCAF, from July 1943 to August 1944, flying the

Consolidated Canso The Consolidated PBY Catalina is a flying boat and amphibious aircraft that was produced in the 1930s and 1940s. In Canadian service it was known as the Canso. It was one of the most widely used seaplanes of World War II. Catalinas served wit ...

; * No. 161 Squadron RCAF, from November 1944 to May 1945, flying the

; * No. 162 Squadron RCAF, from May 1942 (formation) to September 1943, flying the

; and *No. 6 (Canadian Artillery Corps) Detachment, from December 1941 to November 1943, flying the

Westland Lysander The Westland Lysander is a British army co-operation and liaison aircraft produced by Westland Aircraft that was used immediately before and during the Second World War. After becoming obsolete in the army co-operation role, the aircraft's ...

in a coast artillery cooperation role. In addition, No. 419 Squadron RCAF and

No. 428 Squadron RCAF No. 428 Squadron RCAF,

Surrender of Japan. Both squadrons, flying the Avro Lancaster, were to be trained and re-equipped for the Commonwealth

Tiger Force Tiger Force was the name of a long-range reconnaissance patrol unit of the 1st Battalion (Airborne), 327th Infantry, 1st Brigade (Separate), 101st Airborne Division, which fought in the Vietnam War from November 1965 to November 1967. The unit ...

in the Pacific Theatre.

Aerodrome information

In approximately 1942 the aerodrome was listed at with a Var. 20 degrees W and elevation of . Three runways were listed as follows:

Postwar

After the war, the airfield switched to public/commercial use when it was transferred to

Transport Canada Transport Canada (french: Transports Canada) is the department within the Government of Canada responsible for developing regulations, policies and services of road, rail, marine and air transportation in Canada. It is part of the Transporta ...

. Regularly scheduled service was started by

Trans-Canada Air Lines Trans-Canada Air Lines (also known as TCA in English, and Trans-Canada in French) was a Canadian airline that operated as the country's flag carrier, with corporate headquarters in Montreal, Quebec. Its first president was Gordon Roy McGreg ...

(TCA) which in 1947 was operating daily round trip

Halifax, NS Halifax is the capital and largest municipality of the Canadian province of Nova Scotia, and the largest municipality in Atlantic Canada. As of the 2021 Census, the municipal population was 439,819, with 348,634 people in its urban area. The ...

- Yarmouth, NS - Saint John, NB -

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

service. By 1962, TCA was continuing to operate daily flights from the airport with nonstop service to Boston as well as direct flights to Halifax via a stop in Saint John both flown with

Vickers Viscount The Vickers Viscount is a British medium-range turboprop airliner first flown in 1948 by Vickers-Armstrongs. A design requirement from the Brabazon Committee, it entered service in 1953 and was the first turboprop-powered airliner. The Vi ...

turboprop airliners. Trans-Canada then became

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 ...

in 1965. Ownership of Yarmouth Airport was transferred from Transport Canada to the Yarmouth Airport Commission Association on October 1, 1997.Airport Divestiture Status Report
/ref> Air Canada flights into Yarmouth ceased in January 2003. Since then, several small operators have provided air service between Halifax and Yarmouth at various times. These include Sou'West Air, who covered the route in 2003, and Starlink Airlines, which flew between Halifax, Yarmouth and

Portland, Maine Portland is the largest city in the U.S. state of Maine and the seat of Cumberland County. Portland's population was 68,408 in April 2020. The Greater Portland metropolitan area is home to over half a million people, the 104th-largest metropo ...

in 2009. The latter lasted less than one year, despite a $2 million provincial government subsidy meant to carry the airline through the first few years of startup. From March 15, 2010 to December 31, 2012, an American company, Twin Cities Air Service, provided service between Yarmouth and Portland with scheduled flights several times a week. The airport has no scheduled passenger air service at the present time.

Past scheduled Air Canada service

In 1975,

was operating daily flights with McDonnell Douglas DC-9-30 jetliners on a roundtrip routing of

- Saint John, NB - Yarmouth, NS -

. Ten years later in 1985, Air Canada was still operating daily DC-9-30 jet service nonstop to Boston as well as direct to Halifax via a stop in Saint John with passengers bound for

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 ...

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple ...

and Ottawa having to change planes in Halifax according to the Air Canada timetable at the time. Air Canada then subsequently ceased mainline DC-9-30 jet flights into the airport with this service being replaced by

Air Nova Air Nova was an airline based in Enfield, Nova Scotia, Canada that became part of Air Canada Regional in 2001. In 2002 the merger of Air BC, Air Ontario, Air Nova and Canadian Regional Airlines was finalised with the launch of a new name a ...

operating code sharing flights with regional turboprop aircraft on behalf of Air Canada. According to the

Official Airline Guide OAG is a global travel data provider with headquarters in the UK. The company was founded in 1929 and operates in the USA, Singapore, Japan, Lithuania and China. It has a large network of flight information data including schedules, flight st ...

(OAG), in 1989 Air Nova was operating nonstop flights twice daily to both Boston and Halifax with

de Havilland Canada DHC-8 Dash 8 The De Havilland Canada DHC-8, commonly known as the Dash 8, is a series of turboprop-powered regional airliners, introduced by de Havilland Canada (DHC) in 1984. DHC was later bought by Boeing in 1988, then by Bombardier Aerospace, Bombard ...

aircraft. Ten years later in 1999, the OAG lists only one daily nonstop Dash 8 flight to Halifax operated by Air Nova on behalf of Air Canada with no service being flown to Boston at this time.

Facilities

Yarmouth Airport facilities include a modern

airport terminal An airport terminal is a building at an airport where passengers transfer between ground transportation and the facilities that allow them to board and disembark from an aircraft. Within the terminal, passengers purchase tickets, transfer t ...

building and combined services building which houses a maintenance garage. The airport has one runway, after the closure of 06/24 () in 2018, two

taxiway A taxiway is a path for aircraft at an airport connecting runways with aprons, hangars, terminals and other facilities. They mostly have a hard surface such as asphalt or concrete, although smaller general aviation airports sometimes use gravel ...

s and separate parking aprons for

commercial Commercial may refer to: * a dose of advertising conveyed through media (such as - for example - radio or television) ** Radio advertisement ** Television advertisement * (adjective for:) commerce, a system of voluntary exchange of products and s ...

and

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 ...

. In the summer of 2013, its Category I

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 ...

(ILS) was decommissioned, however a

VHF omnidirectional range Very high frequency omnirange station (VOR) is a type of short-range radio navigation system for aircraft, enabling aircraft with a receiving unit to determine its position and stay on course by receiving radio signals transmitted by a network ...

distance measuring equipment In aviation, distance measuring equipment (DME) is a radio navigation technology that measures the slant range (distance) between an aircraft and a ground station by timing the propagation delay of radio signals in the frequency band betwee ...

(VOR/DME) and

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) remain active. The airport property has of easily accessible, industrial real estate. The Yarmouth Airport is home to the Tri-County Flying Association (informally known as the Yarmouth Flying Club). This non-profit flying club has a small clubhouse located on the field and operates a

Cessna 172 The Cessna 172 Skyhawk is an American four-seat, single-engine, high wing, fixed-wing aircraft made by the Cessna Aircraft Company.Iberia Airlines Iberia (), legally incorporated as ''Iberia Líneas Aéreas de España, S.A. Operadora, Sociedad Unipersonal'', is the flag carrier airline of Spain. Founded in 1927 and based in Madrid, it operates an international network of services from i ...

Boeing 747 jumbo jet en route from

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the Largest cities of the Europ ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

made an emergency landing at the airport due to a bomb threat. It was the first time a 747 had ever attempted an emergency landing at such a small airport. Even though the jet successfully landed, the runway was too short for the 747 to take off with passengers on board. The passengers were then flown to New York on board three

DC-9 The McDonnell Douglas DC-9 is an American five-abreast single-aisle aircraft designed by the Douglas Aircraft Company. It was initially produced by the developer company as the Douglas DC-9 until August 1967 and then by McDonnell Douglas. After ...

jets, and early the next morning the 747 took off for New York. No bomb was ever found and the 241 passengers and 18 crew were unharmed.Remember 40 Years Ago?
CJLS - The Wave

References

External links

Official sitePage about this airport
on COPA's ''Places to Fly'' airport directory {{authority control Registered aerodromes in Nova Scotia Transport in Yarmouth County Buildings and structures in Yarmouth County Yarmouth, Nova Scotia