Stephenville Airport is an

airport An airport is an aerodrome with extended facilities, mostly for commercial air transport. Airports usually consists of a landing area, which comprises an aerially accessible open space including at least one operationally active surfa ...

located south southeast of

Stephenville, Newfoundland and Labrador Stephenville (Canada 2021 Census population 6540) is a town in Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada, on the west coast of the island of Newfoundland. The town functions as a local service centre for the southwestern part of the island, serving a dir ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

. It was built by the

United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the Aerial warfare, air military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part ...

and operated as

Ernest Harmon Air Force Base Ernest Harmon Air Force Base is a former United States Air Force base located in Stephenville, Newfoundland and Labrador. The base was built by the United States Army Air Forces in 1941 under the Destroyers for Bases Agreement with the United Ki ...

from 1941 to 1966. The airport serves not only the town of Stephenville, but the city of Corner Brook to the north, and as far south as

Port aux Basques Channel-Port aux Basques is a town at the extreme southwestern tip of Newfoundland fronting on the western end of the Cabot Strait. A Marine Atlantic ferry terminal is located in the town which is the primary entry point onto the island of Newfou ...

, making the total catchment approximately 100,000 people. This region is served through Stephenville Airport by frequent air ambulance flights and charter services. The airport is classified as an

airport of entry In general, a port of entry (POE) is a place where one may lawfully enter a country. It typically has border security staff and facilities to check passports and visas and to inspect luggage to assure that contraband is not imported. Internat ...

Nav Canada Nav Canada (styled as NAV CANADA) is a privately run, not-for-profit corporation that owns and operates Canada's civil air navigation system (ANS). It was established in accordance with the ''Civil Air Navigation Services Commercialization Act ...

and is staffed by the Canada Border Services Agency who are able to process

general aviation General aviation (GA) is defined by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) as all civil aviation aircraft operations with the exception of commercial air transport or aerial work, which is defined as specialized aviation services ...

with up to 30 passengers.

History

In 1941 the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

obtained rights to construct a

United States Army Air Forces The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF or AAF) was the major land-based aerial warfare service component of the United States Army and ''de facto'' aerial warfare service branch of the United States during and immediately after World War II ...

base in the St. George's Bay area of Newfoundland. The U.S. 76th Congress approved the 99-year lease and in April 1941, construction began. The USAAF base was built as Stephenville Air Base. However, after the USAAF became the United States Air Force in 1947, it was renamed Ernest Harmon Air Force Base on June 23, 1948, in honour of Captain Ernest Emery Harmon. Harmon was a

US Army Air Corps The United States Army Air Corps (USAAC) was the aerial warfare service component of the United States Army between 1926 and 1941. After World War I, as early aviation became an increasingly important part of modern warfare, a philosophical r ...

ace An ace is a playing card, die or domino with a single pip. In the standard French deck, an ace has a single suit symbol (a heart, diamond, spade, or club) located in the middle of the card, sometimes large and decorated, especially in the c ...

who was killed in an air crash in 1933. On September 1, 1943, the

Newfoundland Base Command Newfoundland and Labrador (; french: Terre-Neuve-et-Labrador; frequently abbreviated as NL) is the easternmost province of Canada, in the country's Atlantic region. The province comprises the island of Newfoundland and the continental region ...

transferred control of Harmon Field to the North Atlantic Wing,

Air Transport Command Air Transport Command (ATC) was a United States Air Force unit that was created during World War II as the strategic airlift component of the United States Army Air Forces. It had two main missions, the first being the delivery of supplies and ...

. The base became a part of the

Northeast Air Command The Northeast Air Command (NEAC) was a short-lived organization in the United States Air Force tasked with the operation and defense of air bases in Greenland, Labrador and Newfoundland. It was formed in 1950 from the facilities of the United St ...

in October, 1950. Then in April 1957, the Strategic Air Command assumed control. The mandate of the base was to maintain a tanker alert force and its capability to meet and refuel Strategic Air Command jet

bomber A bomber is a military combat aircraft designed to attack ground and naval targets by dropping air-to-ground weaponry (such as bombs), launching torpedoes, or deploying air-launched cruise missiles. The first use of bombs dropped from an air ...

s en route to targets. The

Boeing KC-97 Stratofreighter The Boeing KC-97 Stratofreighter is a four-engined, piston-powered United States strategic tanker aircraft based on the Boeing C-97 Stratofreighter. It replaced the KB-29 and was succeeded by the Boeing KC-135 Stratotanker. Design and developm ...

was employed in this task. The base was also used as a refueling stop for

transatlantic Transatlantic, Trans-Atlantic or TransAtlantic may refer to: Film * Transatlantic Pictures, a film production company from 1948 to 1950 * Transatlantic Enterprises, an American production company in the late 1970s * ''Transatlantic'' (1931 film) ...

military flights. In addition, Harmon supported three Air Defense Command units. In 1957, the Canadian Department of Transportation constructed an

airport terminal An airport terminal is a building at an airport where passengers transfer between ground transportation and the facilities that allow them to board and disembark from an aircraft. Within the terminal, passengers purchase tickets, transfer t ...

to accommodate

Trans-Canada Air Lines Trans-Canada Air Lines (also known as TCA in English, and Trans-Canada in French) was a Canadian airline that operated as the country's flag carrier, with corporate headquarters in Montreal, Quebec. Its first president was Gordon Roy McGreg ...

(now

Air Canada Air Canada is the flag carrier and the largest airline of Canada by the size and passengers carried. Air Canada maintains its headquarters in the borough of Saint-Laurent, Montreal, Quebec. The airline, founded in 1937, provides scheduled an ...

). 1966 saw the closure of the U.S. Air Force Base in Stephenville. The airport is now owned and operated by the local airport authority, the Stephenville Airport Corporation Inc. Stephenville Airport was designated as an alternate in the Trans Oceanic Plane Stop (TOPS) program on 23 July 1970. Since the late 1990s, Stephenville has been designated as one of five Canadian airports suitable as an emergency landing site for the

Space Shuttle The Space Shuttle is a retired, partially reusable low Earth orbital spacecraft system operated from 1981 to 2011 by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as part of the Space Shuttle program. Its official program ...

. The Stephenville Airport was the major passenger airport for all of western Newfoundland until the early 1990s when provincial government decided to direct more traffic to the

Deer Lake Regional Airport Deer Lake Regional Airport is located north northeast of Deer Lake, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. It is currently run by the Deer Lake Regional Airport Authority and is the closest airport to Gros Morne National Park and Corner Brook. It ...

. All major carriers used Stephenville such as

Eastern Provincial Airways Eastern Provincial Airways, also known as EPA, was an airline that operated in Atlantic and eastern Canada. At its peak, the carrier operated jet service with Boeing 737-200 aircraft connecting many communities that today only have scheduled p ...

and

Canadian Airlines Canadian Airlines International Ltd. (stylized as Canadi›n Airlines or Canadi‹n Airlines, or simply Canadian) was a Canadian airline that operated from 1987 until 2001. The airline was Canada's second largest airline after Air Canada, carr ...

. In 1970 the airport was designated by international scheduled air transport and for international

regular use. On February 1, 2018, the

Canada Flight Supplement The Canada Flight Supplement (CFS) (french: link=no, Supplément de vol Canada) is a joint civil/military publication and is a supplement of the Aeronautical Information Publication (AIP Canada). It is the nation's official airport directory. I ...

indicated that runway 02/20, which was long, had been closed. In 2020, as a result of the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

, the airport suffered notable cuts to its airline routes. In August 2020, Winnipeg Airport Services Corp., a wholly owned subsidiary of Winnipeg Airports Authority, was contracted to provide airport management and safety management services for the Stephenville Airport. In September 2021, the Ottawa-based Dymond Group of Companies agreed to acquire the airport and will be renamed the Stephenville Dymond International Airport. After numerous delays and controversy surrounding both the acquisition and the Dymond Group itself, the letter of intent to purchase was signed in June 2022.

Development plans

The Newfoundland and Labrador government along with the Stephenville Airport Corporation have jointly supported a new management structure at the airport. WASCO, a Winnipeg Airport management services firm, is currently managing the airport. A route development committee has been formed to research and reach out to airlines that may serve the airport. Currently the group is allegedly working with an interested airline to offer all year service within the Atlantic region and beyond, though this has not been confirmed.

Operation Yellow Ribbon

On September 11, 2001, eight civilian airliners made unscheduled landings at the Stephenville Airport following the closure of North American airspace in the wake of the

terrorist attacks The following is a list of terrorist incidents that have not been carried out by a state or its forces (see state terrorism and state-sponsored terrorism). Assassinations are listed at List of assassinated people. Definitions of terrori ...

on New York City and Washington, DC. As a participant in Operation Yellow Ribbon, the town hosted nearly 3,000 stranded passengers for approximately one week.

Airlines and destinations

Services

Budget Rent a Car Budget Rent a Car is an American car rental company that was founded in 1958 in Los Angeles, California by Morris Mirkin. Budget is a subsidiary of the Avis Budget Group, with its operations headquartered in Parsippany, New Jersey. History ...

* Discount Car Rental (off site) *Eddy's bus service * Islander's At the Airport restaurant * DRL Coachlines (passenger bus service to the rest of NL) * Airport check-in counter service * ATM *Ground transportation to and from hotels *Passenger lounge *Lav, water, ground power, stairs, air start and ground handling equipment available to service aircraft up to a Boeing 747

Alternate space shuttle landing site

Stephenville Airport was one of five sites along eastern North America designated as an alternate landing site for the

orbiter during its launches and landings. As of 2011 Space Shuttles are no longer in service.Chris Lambie. Halifax possible shuttle pit stop, ''The Chronicle Herald'', July 5, 2006.

References

External links

Airport websitePage about this airport
on COPA's ''Places to Fly'' airport directory {{authority control Certified airports in Newfoundland and Labrador Stephenville, Newfoundland and Labrador Airfields of the United States Army Air Forces Air Transport Command on the North Atlantic Route