Thunder Bay International Airport

Thunder Bay International Airport represents an airport in the city of Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada. By operating about 108,130 aircraft movements in 2012, the facility was the fourth busiest airport in Ontario and the 16th busiest airport in Canada. The same year, more than 761,000 travelers went through the airport.

Thunder Bay International Airport

Thunder Bay International Airport represents an airport in the city of Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada. By operating about 108,130 aircraft movements in 2012, the facility was the fourth busiest airport in Ontario and the 16th busiest airport in Canada. The same year, more than 761,000 travelers went through the airport.

YQT is classified as a facility of entry by Nav Canada and has a Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) officers at the airport. CBSA administrators at this airport can handle aircraft with up to 40 passengers.

History

YQT was built in 1938 as the Fort William Municipal Airport, partly as a means of relieving unemployment.

During WWII, the Thunder Bay (formerly Fort William) airport housed No. 2 Elementary Flying Training School, as part of the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan. The facility was also used as a base for test flights of fighter aircraft being constructed at the nearby Canadian Car and Foundry factory.

Before the two cities of Port Arthur and Fort William merged, YQT was called the Canadian Lakehead Airport.

The airport went through significant improvements in 1994 with the construction of a new terminal building, including a large food court, a gift shop, two jetways, and an arcade.

In 1977 the government handed over the facility to the Thunder Bay International Airports Authority, which operates as a non-profit organization. The airport handled more than 600,000 commuters in 2006 for the first time since 2001.

Infrastructure

The Thunder Bay Airport has a 2-story terminal building.

Thunder Bay’s runways are principally used by small or more significant turboprop aircraft like the Bombardier Q400 propjet. However, they are capable of serving narrow-body jetliners like the current generation Boeing 737 aircraft managed by (formerly) Air Transat, WestJet, and Sunwing Airlines. The airport routinely handled Boeing 737-200, Boeing 727-200, as well as the McDonnell Douglas DC-9-30 mainline jet aircraft and the smaller Fokker F28 Fellowship twin jet in the past. Other more extensive jet aircraft models have also landed at the facility in the past with examples like a Boeing 720 managed by American Airlines.

The airport includes two fixed-base operators: Thunder Bay Flight Refuelling for Esso Aviat, and Innotech Aviation Services for Shell Aviation.