Fort McMurray International Airport

Fort McMurray International Airport represents the largest airport in northern Alberta. The airport has daily flights to Calgary, Edmonton, Fort Chipewyan, and Toronto through airlines WestJet, McMurray Aviation, Air Canada, and Northwestern Air. Sunwing airlines used to fly to seasonal destinations in Mexico 2012-2015. The facility is managed by the Fort McMurray Airport Authority, which represents a community-based not-for-profit organization that has operated at the airport since 2010.

Fort McMurray International Airport

Fort McMurray International Airport represents the largest airport in northern Alberta. The airport has daily flights to Calgary, Edmonton, Fort Chipewyan, and Toronto through airlines WestJet, McMurray Aviation, Air Canada, and Northwestern Air. Sunwing airlines used to fly to seasonal destinations in Mexico 2012-2015. The facility is managed by the Fort McMurray Airport Authority, which represents a community-based not-for-profit organization that has operated at the airport since 2010.

The property has experienced a significant rise in commuters over the last ten years due to the considerable development of the Athabasca oil sands. Flights are often booked to capacity due to the high transient worker population and people unwilling to drive on Alberta Highway 63. In 2014, the airport served 1,308,416 travelers, ranking it as the 15th busiest airport in the country. As a result, a new $258 million terminal facility opened in 2014 that can accommodate 1.5 million passengers annually. Following the opening of the new terminal, travelers’ numbers declined every year to about 639,923 in 2018, ranking it the 20th most busy airport in Canada.

Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) set up a permanent service at YMM in 2013. As of 2018, there are no CBSA agents and no international flights at the facility.

Early years

Early 20th-century flights to Fort McMurray represented initially floating planes that used the Snyder River, a waterway that linked Clearwater River to the more massive Athabasca River. The very first landing strip for light aircraft was established in 1936 to connect Fort McMurray with Edmonton.

World War Two

In 1942, Canadian Pacific Airlines improved the landing strip. That same year, the U.S. entered World War II, and the United States Army Air Forces took over the facility. They made further improvements to operate Allied air military operations in the Europe and Pacific war theatres. In 1944, the USAAF assigned custody of the airstrip back to the Canadian Department of Transport (currently Transport Canada).

Post-war years

The Department of Transport continued to make changes and improvements to the airfield, extending the runway to 1,829 m (6,001 ft) and paving it with asphalt in 1948. Later, Pacific Western Airlines took over management of the property from the late 1950s to the 1960s. In 1962, the airline company established the first permanent air terminal building.

Transport Canada continued to make improvements to the facility from the 1960s to the 1990s. The first permanent control tower was approved in 1981, and a larger 3,000 m2 (32,000 sq ft) terminal started operations in 1986 to accommodate 250,000 passengers annually.

Higher demand made it needed to expand, including lengthening the runway to its current length of 2,287 m (7,503 ft) in 2007. The first airport authority Board was established in 2010 to become the Fort McMurray Airport Authority (FMAA), which currently manages YMM.

Recent developments

Fort McMurray became the fastest-growing airport in the country in the early 2010s, with air activity records decreasing in 2013 and 2014. The airport served approximately 1.2 million passengers in 2013, and about 1.3 million commuters in 2014. YMM became the 15th busiest airport in 2014.

Many travelers included people from outside Canada – especially foreign workers for the Athabasca oil sands. To make it easier for leisure and work air travel, the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) established a permanent border entry into Canada at the airport in 2013.

More significant passenger numbers generated crowded conditions at the original terminal. The FMAA constructed a new $258 million terminal building that was approximately five times larger than the original and can accommodate up to 1.5 million passengers annually. The new terminal building was opened to travelers on June 9, 2014.

The facility temporarily stopped operations on May 4, 2016, because of an out-of-control wildfire that occurred in Fort McMurray.