Airports in New Brunswick, Canada

Fredericton is currently a mandatory-frequency (MF) airport with a flight services station. It's the busiest non-towered airport in Canada, and Nav Canada has announced that the airport will be getting a control tower (presumably class D) in December 2009 with 12 full-time controllers:

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/new-brunswick/story/2009/07/09/air-traffic.html

In 1947, the Dept of Transport had taken over the operation of the Pennfield Airport, as the RCAF moved out. TCA realized that this airport, on a main highway from Saint John would serve the city much better than the long dirt roads up to Blissville and on Apr 1 1947 , Blissville was closed and the Pennfield Ridge Airport (YYP) was opened for scheduled service with all DC3 service.

A new route from Halifax/Yarmouth/Saint John/Boston also began on Apr 1 1947 and the Halifax Montreal flight now stopped in Pennfield . By 1951, Pennfield would see up to 10 flights a day through the Airport, including the transborder flights to/from Boston.

With the opening of the new airport in Saint John (YSJ), TCA moved its operation over there on Dec 31/51

CYQM is the home of Moncton Flight College where hundreds of students get the best of flight training.

Here's an edited version of an article that I wrote about Blissville.

The Blissville Airport was built in the late 1930s as part of the Trans Canada Airways system. Airports and navigation systems were built approximately 100 miles (160kms) apart, covering Canada coast to coast, to facilitate air mail and eventually passenger traffic. It was located about 30 miles (50km) SW of Fredericton on a dusty gravel road and didn’t see the first scheduled TCA flight until May 10, 1941 a stop on the Montreal to Halifax route. Evidently it wasn’t too successful as the trial ended six weeks later on June 15.

On July 1, 1944 Blissville was again added to the TCA route, becoming a regional airport for SW New Brunswick, and this time it was promoted with direct cab service both to Fredericton and Saint John. The distance to Saint John was about 35-40 miles (50-60km) SE, halfway being on dirt roads. TCA pulled out of Blissville when the Airport at Pennfield Ridge was opened up to serve Saint John on April 1, 1947. The terminal/operations building was later disassembled and moved in sections to serve the same purpose at the new Fredericton Airport (YFC) until a new terminal was built there in 1963.

Over the last several decades, the Blissville Airport has been used by Forest Protection Ltd. as a base for fighting forest fires and conducting spraying operations. It is now located just inside the boundary of CFB Gagetown with a 4000 foot (1200m) paved runway and a Military Airport code – CCH3.

(adapted from article by George Brien that appeared in the Atlantic Canada Aviation Museum Newsletter, Fall 2007)

If anyone interested, I have lots of info on TCA people that worked there in the mid 40's.

gnbrien@eastlink.ca

It seems like such a tiny airport to have that amount of traffic with no ramp space to park them all, but I guess helicopters don't need much runway, so you could just park them on the runway?