Ottawa Macdonald-Cartier International Airport

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Ottawa Macdonald-Cartier International Airport

IATA: YOW – ICAO: CYOW
Summary
Airport type Public
Owner Transport Canada[1]
Operator Ottawa Macdonald-Cartier International Airport Authority
Serves Ottawa, Ontario
Elevation AMSL 374 ft / 114 m
Coordinates 45°19′21″N 075°40′09″W / 45.3225, -75.66917
Website www.ottawa-airport.ca
Runways
Direction Length Surface
ft m
04/22 3,300 1,006 Asphalt
07/25 8,000 2,438 Asphalt
14/32 10,000 3,048 Asphalt
Statistics (2006)
Aircraft Movements 145,428
Number of Passengers 3,807,756
Aircraft statistics from Transport Canada.[2]
Passenger statistics from Ottawa Macdonald-Cartier.[3]
Source: Canada Flight Supplement[4]

Ottawa/Macdonald-Cartier International Airport or Macdonald-Cartier International Airport (L'aéroport international Macdonald-Cartier in French), (IATA: YOW, ICAO: CYOW), serves Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. It is named for Sirs John A. Macdonald and George-Étienne Cartier. Located 10 km (5.5 nautical miles) south of the city centre, it is Canada's 6th busiest airport by airline passenger traffic[3], and the 9th busiest by aircraft movements.[2] It is also an Air Canada Jazz, Air Canada, and WestJet focus city and the home base for Zoom Airlines and First Air.

It was formerly known as CFB Ottawa South/CFB Uplands.

The airport is classifed as an airport of entry by NAV CANADA and is staffed by the Canada Border Services Agency. CBSA officers at this airport currently can handle aircraft with no more than 165 passengers, however they can handle up to 450 if the aircraft is unloaded in stages.[4]

Ottawa International Airport is one of 8 Canadian Airports that has US Border Pre-clearance facilities.

Contents

The airport was originally opened at Uplands on a high plateau (then) south of Ottawa by the Ottawa Flying Club, which still operates from the field. During World War II, when it was known as Uplands, the airport hosted No. 2 Service Flying Training School for the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan, providing advanced pilot training in Harvard and Yale aircraft.

During the 1950s, while the airport was still named Uplands and a joint-use civilian/military field, it was the busiest airport in Canada by takeoffs and landings, reaching a peak of 307,079 aircraft movements in 1959,[5] more than double its current traffic. At the time, the airport had scheduled airline flights by Trans-Canada Air Lines (Toronto, Montreal, and Val d'Or), Trans Air (Churchill), and Eastern Air Lines (New York via Syracuse and Washington via Montreal).[5] With the arrival of civilian jet travel, the Canadian government built a new field south of the original one, with two much longer runways and a new terminal building designed to handle up to 900,000 passengers/year. The terminal building was originally scheduled to open in 1959, but during practices for the opening ceremonies, a United States Air Force F-104 Starfighter accidentally went supersonic during a low pass over the airport, and the resultant boom shattered most of the glass in the airport (including the entire north wall) and damaged ceiling tiles, door and window frames, and even structural beams.[6] As a result, the opening was delayed until April 1960. The original terminal building and Trans-Canada Airways hangar continues in private use on the airport's north field.

At the turn of the millennium, the Ottawa Airport Authority announced plans to build an entirely new terminal adjacent to the 1960 one as a result of increased traffic. The new terminal was built before schedule in 2003 and, for the most part, currently handles all passenger traffic. A section of the 1960 terminal, which is connected to the new terminal by an enclosed bridge, is still used at busy times when extra gate space is needed. The extension of the new terminal is to be built in phases, and will eventually replace the 1960 terminal. The next phase of the expansion program is currently underway, and should be completed by 2008.

On May 19, 1967, an Air Canada Douglas DC-8 on a training flight from Montreal crashed on approach to the Ottawa airport, killing all three crew members.[7]

On July 23, 1983, Air Canada Flight 143 (a Boeing 767) departed the Ottawa airport enroute for Edmonton, Alberta. Due to system problems and confusion between metric and imperial units, the aircraft did not have sufficient fuel to complete the flight, and the engines stopped over Red Lake, Ontario. The crew managed to glide the aircraft to a safe landing in Gimli, Manitoba, earning it the nickname Gimli Glider.

On September 15, 1988, a Bradley Air Services BAe 748 crashed on approach to runway 25, killing both crew members.[8]

On June 13, 1997, a North American Airlines Fairchild Swearingen Metroliner struck the runway with gear retracted during a botched approach, resulting in propellor strikes and a fire in one engine when it came to rest on runway 25. The aircraft was written off, but the crew escaped without injury.[9]

In March 2006, Airports Council International named Ottawa Macdonald-Cartier International Airport the 2nd best Airport in the Americas (Halifax International Airport being the first place winner), and among the ten best worldwide.

One year later, in March 2007, Ottawa International Airport was recognized again for its outstanding customer service in the Airport Service Quality Awards in Dubai, UAE. Ottawa placed 2nd overall for worldwide airports that serve between 0 and 5 million passengers, and 3rd overall for best worldwide domestic airports.[10]

The airport underwent an expansion in 2003, with the opening of a new terminal building. The airport's board of directors approved a further expansion of the airport's passenger terminal on April 4, 2006. The new addition will add over 7,000 square metres of space and will have twelve new gates and seven jetways. The old terminal, which is still used during peak periods, as well as by all Bearskin and Jazz Dash 8 domestic flights, will be torn down once the new addition is ready. The airport authority hopes that the new addition will be completed in early 2008.

Ottawa Airport control tower.
Ottawa Airport control tower.

Macdonald-Cartier Airport is part of Canada's busiest air commuter route between Ottawa, Montreal, and Toronto, and is also the hub for flights to the eastern Arctic, including Iqaluit.

The following airlines fly to Macdonald-Cartier International Airport (non-stop destinations shown in parentheses):

  • Porter Airlines (Halifax, Toronto-City Centre)
  • Skyservice (Cancun, Cayo Coco, Holguin, Montego Bay, Puerto Plata, Punta Cana, Samana, Varadero) [All seasonal]
  • Sunwing Airlines (Acapulco, Cancun, Orlando, Punta Cana, Varadero) [All seasonal]
  • Thomas Cook Airlines (London-Gatwick) [seasonal]
  • United Airlines
  • US Airways
  • WestJet (Cabo San Lucas [seasonal], Calgary, Cancun [seasonal], Fort Lauderdale [seasonal; begins December 24], Montego Bay [seasonal], Orlando [seasonal], Puerto Vallarta [seasonal], Punta Cana [seasonal], St. Maarten [seasonal], Tampa [seasonal], Toronto-Pearson, Vancouver, Winnipeg)
  • Zoom Airlines (Cancun, Glasgow, La Romana, Las Vegas, London-Gatwick, Orlando, Puerto Plata, Punta Cana, St. Maarten, Varadero) [All seasonal]

In the past, this airport was also served by:

OC Transpo bus route 97 provides frequent express service to downtown along a dedicated transitway at a cost of CAD 3.00 cash or two tickets (CAD 1.90), with connections to the train and bus stations. The now defunct plans for Ottawa's O-Train expansion included a potential link to the airport. Airport limos and shuttle buses are also available, and there are several rental car agencies located at the airport.

Diagram of the Ottawa airport
Diagram of the Ottawa airport

The airport actually consists of two distinct airfields connected by a taxiway. The smaller north field, originally referred to as Uplands, was originally founded by the Ottawa Flying Club in the late 1920s and then used by Trans-Canada Airlines, the predecessor of Air Canada. The north field is still popular for general aviation, although only one of its runways, 04/22, is still in use.

The south field consists of the two longer runways, 07/25 and 14/32, designed for jet airliners. The public passenger terminals are tucked into the north side of the intersection of the two runways, while the two general aviation FBOs for the south field are nearer to the threshold of runway 25. Customs services for private aircraft are available at the two FBOs, Shell and Esso, on the south field.

  1. ^ Airport Divestiture Status Report
  2. ^ a b Transport Canada TP 577 - Aircraft Movement Statistics Annual Report 2006
  3. ^ a b Ottawa Macdonald-Cartier Passenger Statistics
  4. ^ a b Canada Flight Supplement. Effective 0901Z 25 October 2007 to 0901Z 20 December 2007.
  5. ^ a b November 2006 – A Page in History Has Been Turned
  6. ^ "The Sound of Security"
  7. ^ Douglas DC-8-54F - Aviation Safety Network
  8. ^ British Aerospace BAe-748-FAA Srs. 2B - Aviation Safety Network
  9. ^ Swearingen SA.226TC Metro II - Aviation Safety Network
  10. ^ World’s top customer service airports in 2006

v • d • e
Airports in Ontario with Scheduled Flights
Major Toronto Pearson International Airport · Ottawa Macdonald-Cartier International Airport · Hamilton/John C. Munro International Airport
Minor Region of Waterloo International Airport · London International Airport · Windsor Airport · Thunder Bay International Airport · Sault Ste. Marie Airport · Sarnia (Chris Hadfield) Airport · Sudbury Airport · North Bay/Jack Garland Airport · Kingston/Norman Rogers Airport · Timmins Airport · Toronto City Centre Airport
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ottawa_Macdonald-Cartier_International_Airport"
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