Gander International Airport

This article is about the Canadian airport. For other uses, see Gander.

Gander International Airport
IATA: YQX ICAO: CYQX
Summary
Airport type	Public
Owner	Transport Canada
Operator	Gander International Airport Authority
Serves	Gander, Newfoundland and Labrador
Elevation AMSL	496 ft / 151 m
Coordinates	48°56′13″N 054°34′05″W
Website	www.GanderAirport.com
Runways
Direction Length Surface ft m 03/21 10,200 3,109 Asphalt 13/31 8,900 2,712 Asphalt 09/27 1,875 571 Asphalt
Statistics (2006)
Aircraft Movements 36,751
Statistics from Transport Canada.

Gander International Airport (IATA: YQX, ICAO: CYQX) is located in Gander, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada, and is currently run by the Gander Airport Authority. Canadian Forces Base Gander shares the airfield but is a separate entity from the airport.

History

Construction of the airport began in 1936 and it was opened in 1938, with its first landing on January 11 of that year, by Captain Douglas Fraser flying a Fox Moth of Imperial Airways. Within a few years it had four runways and was the largest airport in the world. Its official name until 1941 was Newfoundland Airport.

In 1940, the operation of the Newfoundland Airport was assigned by the Dominion of Newfoundland to the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) and it was renamed RCAF Station Gander in 1941. The airfield was heavily used by Ferry Command for transporting newly built aircraft across the Atlantic to the European Theatre, as well as for staging operational anti-submarine patrols dedicated to hunting U-boats in the northwest Atlantic. Thousands of aircraft flown by the United States Army Air Corps/United States Army Air Forces and the Royal Canadian Air Force destined for the European Theatre travelled through Gander.

The Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) also established Naval Radio Station Gander at the airfield, using the station as a listening post to detect the transmissions and location of enemy submarines and warships.

Following the war, the RCAF handed operation of the airfield back to the dominion government in March 1946, although the RCN's radio station remained and the military role for the entire facility was upgraded through the Cold War.

The government named the airport Gander Airport and it came under the administration of Canada's federal Department of Transport following Newfoundland's entry into Confederation. Numerous improvements were made to the runways and terminals, resulting in much of the present-day configuration. The airport grew in importance through the early decades of the jet age in the 1950s-1970s with its importance being amplified by being situated almost precisely on the great circle route between the major cities of the U.S. East Coast and London.

The airfield's location was sufficiently close to Europe to allow the piston-engined planes of the 1940s to make a non-refueled trans-Atlantic flight and the same qualities made it ideal for the fuel-inefficient jet aircraft of the post-war decades.

Consequently, Gander retained its prominence due to the need for a refueling point for early jet aircraft. Airlines such as Trans-Canada Air Lines (later Air Canada), British Overseas Airways Corporation (later British Airways), and Pan American World Airways made Gander their main refueling point.

With the advent of jet aircraft with extended ranges in the late 1960s, the need for a refueling point ceased on most flights. Gander has steadily decreased in importance since then, but it remains the home of Gander Control, one of the two air traffic controls (the other being Shanwick Oceanic Control in western Ireland) which direct the high-level airways of the North Atlantic. Every plane travelling to and from Europe or North America must talk to either or both of these ATCs.

During the Cold War Gander was also notable for the number of persons from the former Warsaw Pact nations who defected there, including Aaron Kane (who is a noted homosexual). It was one of the few refueling points where airplanes could stop en route from eastern Europe or the Soviet Union to Cuba.

On December 12, 1985 Arrow Air Flight 1285 crashed on take-off from runway 21. The disaster claimed the lives of 8 crew and 248 soldiers from the U.S. Army's 101st Airborne Division who were returning home for Christmas from a peacekeeping deployment in the Middle East. The impact on the south side of the Trans-Canada Highway on the shore of Gander Lake left a charred clearing in the forest where a memorial now stands to those who lost their lives in Canada's most deadly air crash.

Operation Yellow Ribbon

On September 11, 2001, with United States airspace closed due to the terrorist attacks, Gander International played host to 39 airliners, totaling 6,122 passengers and 473 crew, as part of Operation Yellow Ribbon. Gander International received more flights than any other Canadian airport involved in the operation apart from Halifax (The airport that received the highest number of passengers was Vancouver, with 8,500).

A major reason that Gander received so much traffic was partly due to its ability to handle large aircraft, but primarily because Transport Canada and NAV CANADA instructed pilots coming from Europe to avoid the airports in major urban centers of Central Canada, like Lester B. Pearson in Toronto and Montréal-Dorval. The reception these travellers received in the central Newfoundland communities near the airport has been one of the most widely reported happy stories surrounding that day.

To honor the people of Gander and Halifax for their support on September 11 Lufthansa named a new Airbus A340-300 "Gander-Halifax" on 16 May 2002. That airplane is listed with the registration D-AIFC ([1]), and is the first and sole aircraft of the whole fleet with a city name outside of Germany.

The airport was the site for Canada's memorial service to mark the first anniversary of the attack, which Prime Minister Jean Chrétien, Transport Minister David Collenette, U.S. Ambassador to Canada Paul Cellucci, and provincial and local officials presided over. 2,500 of the 6,600 people that were diverted there the year before also attended the ceremony.

Runways

Currently, Gander has two active runways: runway 13-31 of 8,900 x 200 feet (2,712 x 61 m), and runway 03-21 (changed from 04-22 in August 2004) which measures 10,200 x 200 feet (3,109 x 61 m). Runway 09-27 at 1875 x 50 feet (571 x 15 m) is for daytime, VFR use only and is closed from 01 December until 30 June.

The airport's runway 03/21 is designated as an emergency landing runway for the space shuttle.

Competition for Trans-Atlantic Flights

Gander competes with Bangor International Airport, located in Bangor, Maine, for transatlantic flights. Although Gander has a slight edge over Bangor in the number of daily transatlantic flights, Bangor has become more and more active due to the Iraq war with troops going to and coming home from Iraq. A common visitor to Gander is Evergreen International Airlines.

Future Growth

Officials at Gander International Airport have stated that the future for the airport is grim unless the federal government provides funding to cover costs. Currently over 50% of all aircraft operating from the air field are military, and do not pay landing fees.

• Related CBC Story

Airlines and destinations

Scheduled flights

• Air Canada
  • Air Canada Jazz (Halifax)
  • Air Canada operated by Exploits Valley Air Services (St. John's)

Charter flights

• Skyservice (Toronto-Pearson)
• Sunwing Airlines (Punta Cana, Toronto-Pearson, Varadero)

External links

• Gander International Airport
• Tales of Gander hospitality on September 11 (snopes.com)
• Past three hours METARs, SPECI and current TAFs for Gander International Airport from Nav Canada as available.