Calgary International Airport
Calgary International Airport, branded as YYC Calgary Airport, is an international airport that serves the city of Calgary, Alberta, Canada. It is located approximately northeast of downtown and covers an area of 20.82 square kilometres. With 18.9 million passengers in 2024 and 202,497 aircraft movements in 2023, Calgary International is the busiest airport in Alberta and the fourth-busiest in Canada by both passenger traffic and aircraft movements. This airport is served by the Calgary International Airport Emergency Response Service for aircraft rescue and firefighting protection. The region's petroleum and tourism industries have helped foster growth at the airport, which has nonstop flights to an array of destinations in North and Central America, Europe, and Asia. Calgary serves as the headquarters and primary hub for WestJet. It is also a focus city for Air Canada.
Built in the late 1930s, the site has since grown to house: 71 gates at minimum, three runways and two terminal buildings with six concourses for passengers, warehouses for cargo handling, and other infrastructure. The Calgary Airport Authority operates the property while paying rent to the federal government. Close to the airport are the Deerfoot Trail and Stoney Trail freeways for transport into the city and surrounding area, and public transit also serves the airport.
History
Early history
The first airport to serve Calgary opened in 1914, in the then-town of Bowness. It occupied one-square kilometre and consisted of a hut and a grass runway. The site is now the location of a community centre as well as Bowness High School and Bowglen Park.Operations shifted to a new airport southwest of the city in 1928, named Old Banff Coach Road Airport. However, issues with turbulence in the area prompted another airfield to be built the following year in the neighbourhood of Renfrew known as the Calgary Municipal Airport or Stanley Jones Airport. The local airline Renfew Air Service constructed the Rutledge Hangar at the Renfrew site in 1929, a lamella arch structure composed of Douglas Fir planks on a reinforced concrete base. The Renfew Air Service folded in November 1931 as a result of the Great Depression, and ownership of the Rutledge Hangar was taken over by the Edmonton Credit Corporation who subsequently lease the hangar to the City of Calgary. The RCAF used the airport in the 1940s. The Rutledge Hangar remains standing at the original Renfew site by Boys and Girls Club of Calgary and was designated an Alberta Provincial Historic Resource on 5 May 2003.
Present site and World War II
As the City of Calgary grew to surround the Renfrew airport site the municipal government decided to relocate the airport to a new location. The city purchased an area of land north of Calgary in 1938 for about $31,000; and remains the site of Calgary's current airport. The city came to an agreement with Trans-Canada Air Lines to construct and lease a hangar on the site for $45,000, and the federal Department of Transportation financed the construction of three runways and other improvements, the first of which opened on 25 September. The new Calgary airfield was named McCall Field after First World War ace and lifelong Calgarian Fred McCall.As a result of Canada entering the Second World War, the federal government assumed control of McCall Field in 1940, re-purposing it as a fuel and maintenance stop for aircraft involved in the war effort and later stationing the No. 37 Service Flying Training School at the airfield from 22 October 1941 until its closure on 10 March 1944. McCall Field continued to operate regular passenger flights during the Second World War.
Following the end of the Second World War, the airport had been expanded to include additional hangars, four runways and other infrastructure. The City of Calgary resumed management of McCall Field in 1946, repurposed the a hangar as a passenger terminal, and convinced the federal government to extend the airports east–west runway to in October 1949 at an estimated cost of $750,000 the construction required a excavation below grade to prevent frost heaving. At the time of completion, McCall Field's east–west runway was the third-longest runway in Alberta behind the Calgary Airport's north–south runway and the runway at CFB Namao.
1950s and 1960s: Terminal expansion and jet age
The re-purposed military hangars did not meet the needs of the growing transportation needs of the city, and efforts were made by city officials to secure funding for a new passenger terminal. A new passenger terminal was constructed in 1956; its design originated in the 1950s as a thesis project by Provincial Institute of Technology and Art architecture student Ken Bond, who later formed the architectural firm Clayton, Bond and Mogridge, which was awarded the contract for designing the new terminal. The one-million dollar project featured an open public concourse, and ticketing offices for three airlines was dubbed one of the most modern air terminals in Canada when it opened on 2 June 1956. A lavish opening ceremony was attended by federal Transportation Minister George C. Marler, Lieutenant Governor of Alberta John J. Bowlen, and Mayor Donald Hugh Mackay, and a number of other dignitaries. The festivities included an air show featuring an Avro Canada CF-100 Canuck. Following construction of the new passenger terminal, McCall Field would see 110,984 passenger arrivals, 96,287 departures and nearly of cargo through the airport in 1957.In the 1960s Calgary City Council began lobbying the federal government to designate McCall Field as an "international airport", a status defined by the Department of Transportation. As a compromise on 6 April 1962, the federal government approved naming the airport terminal Calgary International Airport from Calgary Municipal Airport. However, Mayor Harry Hays, local aldermen and residents continued to refer to the airport in general as McCall Field. Calgary International Airport did not receive official "International" status from the federal government until 1969. The first non-stop transatlantic flights were scheduled by Canadian Pacific Airlines in 1961, connecting Calgary with Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, and more flights from Europe commenced the following year.
The jet age arrived shortly after the construction of Calgary's new passenger terminal. The terminal was not designed with jet aircraft in mind, and the airport's runways were not suitable for the larger and faster aircraft. In 1961 the airport replaced the diagonal runway with an runway capable of handling modern jet aircraft. In 1963 the airport underwent a $4-million refurbishment which saw improved electronic landing aids, and the main north–south runway extended by to its present length of.
The City of Calgary was unable to afford the continued upgrades the Calgary Municipal Airport necessary to cope with the rising aircraft traffic. The city proceeded to sell the Calgary Municipal Airport to the federal government in 1966 for $2 million, and the Department of Transportation proceeded to refurbish the runways shortly afterwards.
1970s: Terminal and hub status
The new passenger terminal constructed in 1956 proved to only temporarily meet the needs of the city, and was inadequate for expansion or facilitating jet aircraft servicing. Following the sale of the Calgary International Airport by the City of Calgary to the Government of Canada in 1966, plans were put in motion to build a new passenger terminal. The airport's sale came with a promise by Federal Transportation Minister Jack Pickersgill that the federal government would build a $20-million passenger terminal within five years; however, continued delays pushed completion of the terminal to 1977.Construction began on the new passenger terminal in 1972, construction would be delayed due to re-designs to meet increased air traffic needs, causing the price of the new terminal to grow well beyond the original $20-million figure. Finally, on 12 October 1977, the new $130-million, terminal was opened by Mayor Rod Sykes, Provincial Transportation Minister Hugh Horner, and Federal Transportation Minister Otto Lang two months before construction had completed. Sykes was able to leverage his friendship with Lord Mountbatten to convince British Airways to have one of the newly introduced Concorde land in Calgary on the day, and although the jet showed up a day late due to mechanical issues, it was still quite the coup for a city of less than half a million residents. Among other festivities for the opening event included flyovers by a Boeing 747, Lockheed F-104 Starfighter, and the Canadian Air Force Snowbirds. The 1977 passenger terminal remains the core of Calgary International Airport's domestic terminal to this day.
The Jumbo Jet age arrived in Calgary with the newly introduced Boeing 747 landing for the first time in 1973, with Wardair providing non-stop bi-weekly charter service from Calgary to London. Air Canada was not far behind, and began non-stop service to London using the 747 starting on 27 June 1974. In April 1974, Calgary International Airport hosted CP Air's flight testing for the Boeing 747 after airport firefighters went on strike at both Vancouver International Airport and Toronto Pearson Airport.
In 1974 the Government of Alberta acquired ownership of Pacific Western Airlines, Canada's third largest airline at the time and moved the head office and hub to Calgary. The airline continued under provincial government ownership until 1983, and later merged with Canadian Pacific Air Lines to form Canadian Airlines. Canadian Airlines maintained Calgary as the hub and headquarters for the airline until it was acquired by Air Canada in 2001.
1990s: Reorganization and WestJet
In the early 1990s, the Government of Canada introduced the National Airports Policy which moved towards privatization, liberalization and economic deregulation of air transportation, which included the formation of a local airport authority under the name Calgary Airport Authority in 1992 for the management, operation and development of the Calgary International Airport under lease from the federal government. The Calgary Airport Authority, incorporated in July 1990 is a non-share capital, not-for-profit corporation formed under the authority of Alberta's Regional Airports Authorities Act. The Calgary Airport Authority signed a long-term 60-year lease with an additional 20-year option, which was subsequently exercised in 2011.In 1992, Calgary International Airport opened a new air traffic control tower at the southern end of Aero Drive. The control tower when completed was tall with of office room, and was designed with the knowledge that it would not provide the necessary line of sight to the expanded east airfield.
In February 1996, WestJet, which began as a low-cost carrier began operations with a base of operations at Calgary International, occupying an expanded area of the terminal. The airline's first flight, a Boeing 737 departed Calgary International on route to Vancouver International Airport on 29 February 1996.