National Airports System

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Canada's National Airport System (NAS) was defined in the National Airports Policy published in 1994. It was intended to include all airports with an annual traffic of 200,000 passengers or more, as well as airports serving the national, provincial and territorial capitals.^[1]

Any airport sustaining an annual traffic of 200,000 passengers or more for a period of three years will be added to the NAS. Any non-capital airport falling below this threshold for a period of three years will be removed from the NAS. However, since the introduction of the policy only one, Iqaluit Airport, has been added and no airports have been removed despite dropping below 200,000 passengers, such as Montréal-Mirabel International Airport and Gander International Airport.^[2][3]

All airports, with the exception of the three territorial capitals, in the NAS are owned by Transport Canada and leased to the local authorities operating them.^[3]

As of 1994, the 26 NAS airports served 94% of all scheduled passenger and cargo traffic in Canada.^[1]

NAS Airports

The following list contains the 26 NAS airports effective 17 April 2010, along with their IATA codes and passenger numbers for 2008:^[3][4]

• British Columbia
  • Kelowna International Airport, YLW, 1,359,619
  • Prince George Airport, YXS, 409,929
  • Vancouver International Airport, YVR, 17,057,968
  • Victoria International Airport, YYJ, 1,501,189

• Alberta
  • Calgary International Airport, YYC, 12,173,977
  • Edmonton International Airport, YEG, 6,230,876

• Saskatchewan
  • Regina International Airport, YQR, 991,108
  • Saskatoon John G. Diefenbaker International Airport, YXE, 1,102,924

• Manitoba
  • Winnipeg James Armstrong Richardson International Airport, YWG, 3,452,307

• Ontario
  • London International Airport, YXU, 462,019
  • Ottawa Macdonald-Cartier International Airport, YOW, 4,146,628
  • Thunder Bay International Airport, YQT, 625,345
  • Toronto Pearson International Airport, YYZ, 30,127,431

• Quebec
  • Montréal-Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport, YUL, 12,032,699
  • Montréal-Mirabel International Airport, YMX, n/a <200,000
  • Québec City Jean Lesage International Airport, YQB, 1,099,915

• New Brunswick
  • Fredericton International Airport, YFC, 248,740 (2007)
  • Greater Moncton International Airport, YQM, 549,315
  • Saint John Airport, YSJ, 238,300

• Nova Scotia
  • Halifax Stanfield International Airport, YHZ, 3,458,961

• Prince Edward Island
  • Charlottetown Airport, YYG, 272,381

• Newfoundland and Labrador
  • Gander International Airport, YQX, 89,829
  • St. John's International Airport, YYT, 1,184,655

• Nunavut
  • Iqaluit Airport, YFB, 113,130 (2007)

• Northwest Territories
  • Yellowknife Airport, YZF, 304,327

• Yukon
  • Erik Nielsen Whitehorse International Airport, YXY, 199,594

References

1. ^ ^{a b} Criteria for the NAS
2. ^ Airports in the national airports category (Appendix A)
3. ^ ^{a b c} Airport Divestiture Status Report
4. ^ Passengers enplaned and deplaned on selected services — Top 50 airports

External links

• National Airports Policy