:previous:

The first scheduled passenger flight out of Moncton was on January 11th, 1928. There is a long proud history of air travel out of greater Moncton and Shediac. :)

Edmonton's first airport was even earlier. Mayfield opened in 1919 when Wop May rented our the Curtiss Jenny and started bush piloting.

1919 is INSANE.

That's older than some of the ones this article claims are the 10 oldest STILL OPERATIONAL ones in the world:

http://www.airport-technology.com/fe...ports-4177034/

Mayfield isn't around anymore. Well it does. It's now a community with houses and a hotel.

Blatchford Field (Edmonton Municipal) opened in 1927 and is slowly being converted into a community too.

That article lists Albany Int'l as one of the 10 oldest. It opened in 1928, which is coincidentally the same year that Richardson Int'l Airport opened for business in Winnipeg. I didn't really think of our airport as being "old", but wow... I guess it is. It's pushing 100!

Yeah, commercial flight is a relatively new thing. :D Fun to learn about.

In May 1920, federal government regulators assigned a field near present day intersection of Hill Ave & Cameron St in Regina, the designation of Canada's first licensed "air harbour". Reginan Roland Groome received Canadian commercial pilot's licence No. 1 and mechanic Robert McCombie was given air engineer's licence No. 1.
The present airport site was developed in 1928-30. A terminal building was built in 1940. Scheduled airline service was initially provided by Moose Jaw-based Prairie Airways (in 1938) and then Trans-Canada Air Lines (in 1939).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regina_...tional_Airport

On June 1, 1929 the city of Saskatoon was given a "License For Air Harbour" and the airport was established. This provided a home for the Saskatoon Aero Club. In 1940 the city leased the airport to the Royal Canadian Air Force. After the war (1947) the airport was transferred to the Canadian Department of Transport for civilian use

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saskato...tional_Airport

A civilian flying club aerodrome was established on the site south-southwest of Moose Jaw in 1928 by the Moose Jaw Flying Club. Aerodrome later became site of CFB Moose Jaw, and now is home to:
2 Canadian Forces Flying Training School,
NATO Flying Training in Canada program,
15 Wing Moose Jaw
15 Air Traffic Control Squadron[5]
431 Air Demonstration Squadron (also known as the "Snowbirds")

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CFB_Moose_Jaw

To add to SaskScraper's post, regarding Regina:

Groome and McCombie established Regina's first aerodrome in 1919, near what is now the intersection of Hill Avenue and Cameron Street. As stated, the aerodrome became Canada's first licensed "air harbour" in 1920. It would later fail, as would a second airfield at the current site of the Golden Mile Shopping Centre.

The present airport site officially opened on September 15, 1930. In 1932, the Regina airport boasted the only paved runways between Toronto and Vancouver.

Very cool!

It seems as though, at first, airports seemed to be located away from the major cities. In Canada, they're seemingly oldest on the prairies. Minneapolis has one of the oldest in the U.S. Ours was in Gander.

I wonder what the thought process was, when people realized... hey! These might be useful near our largest cities too!

They seem to have done that much sooner in Europe.

It likely came about when flight safety improved in the 1940s and 50s.

Well, if you want to think about it in a slightly different way -- my Great Grandmother, who passed away just 5 years ago, was born a year after the first flight of the Wright flyer. She had already gotten married and taken a ship from Wales to Canada before Edmonton opened Mayfield. There are still little, 120 year old ladies out there that were born before sustained flight was a thing.

She was 15 when she got married?

That was normal back then everywhere, wasn't it?

One of my grandmothers was 14 (Scottish war bride; he was 19), the other (a Newfoundlander) was 16; he was 16 as well. Both had 13 children.

It died off fast, though. My parents were 26(Dad)/24 respectively.

I would imagine that flight safety, pressurized cabins, and the airplane winning out over the oceanliner, flying boat, and airship contributed as well. There was a legitimate case to be made for zeppelins to be the future of air travel right up to the Hindenburg crash. It also would have been amazing if engineers could have figured out how to moor them to skyscrapers and be able to load/unload passengers from a tower, but that has forever remained in the realm of fantasy :(

Airports have become larger as flying has become cheaper, making it more affordable for the average person. In the early days it was luxury, the golden age of airliners in the 1940s and 50s is evidence or that. Everybody who flew wore a suit/tie and generally dressed nice. Today we would fly in underwear if they'd let us.

Overall, our earliest airport in Newfoundland was technically the flying boat airport in 1920 which became used to commercial flying boat traffic in the 1930s. Then Gander came along in 1938 (our first real airport), Stephenville and St. John's in 1941, Deer Lake in 1955. Harbour Grace was the first landing strip on the island in 1919 and was eventually used for all the early transatlantic crossings. It's kind of strange that Harbour Grace didn't develop into a full blown airport given it's favourable conditions and proximity to St. John's.

Yeah, Harbour Grace even had all those early celebrities, like Amelia, didn't they?

****

Seriously, though, WTF with Deer Lake?

Was it just mainland-Canadian/American bickering or pride? WHY did they set up another airport there?

This really depends on what you describe to be an airport.

Toronto had several early grass or dirt airfields that predated WW1.

Billy Bishop bought the wartime Toronto RAF airfield for a dollar in 1919 but soon went out of business.

Toronto's story gets really confusing because there were several airfields built right next to one another on what is now Downsview Airport. Any of them depending on your criteria could be called Toronto's first airport. There is a strong case for the Toronto Aerodrome/Toronto Flying Club because that is where Customs was setup for receiving international flights starting in 1929.

Excellent - all that is what I mean yeah. :D Thanks!

(I just assumed Pearson was the first and looked up when it started. :haha:)

The Bowness Flying Field had passenger flights to High River, Nanton, Turner Valley and Banff (and the "North Pole" in an annual HBC Christmas promotion)

It operated from 1917 till 1928 when the passenger service went to Renfrew and the Flying Club went to a new airfield near Calaway Park.

montreal's saint-hubert airport (still canada's busiest general aviation airport and sixth busiest by aircraft movements, which seems odd to me) is the city's oldest, and was founded in 1928.

copenhagen kastrup opened in 1925 with a grass runway; it currently has about 25 million passengers per year, which would place it about halfway between toronto and vancouver in canada.

Our airport on current site was built in 1950.
CP Air first flight 1967
Castlegar becomes a city 1974