The West Kootenay Regional Airport (Castlegar Airport) is a small regional

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

located south southeast of

Castlegar, British Columbia Castlegar is a community in the West Kootenay region of British Columbia, Canada. In the Selkirk Mountains, at the confluence of the Kootenay River, Kootenay and Columbia Rivers, it is a regional trade and transportation centre, with a local eco ...

, Canada. It serves the West Kootenay region, including Castlegar, Nelson and Trail. It is owned and operated by the City of Castlegar, and has a passenger terminal. Due to the mountainous terrain impinging on both runway approaches, there is no possibility of a straight-in approach. The airport is therefore certified for day operations only, and the glideslope on approach is set to a steep 5.0° rather than the standard 3.0°. The

instrument approach In aviation, an instrument approach or instrument approach procedure (IAP) is a series of predetermined maneuvers for the orderly transfer of an aircraft operating under instrument flight rules from the beginning of the initial approach to a lan ...

es to Castlegar are considered among the most challenging of any in use at a commercial airport in

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...

. In 2006, Castlegar airport was developing departure procedures for night time operation, but as of 2010 the airport was certified for daytime operation only. A $1 million programme installed six beacons on the hills of the Columbia Valley that allow night-time take offs from the airport. It is expected that this will only be used by air ambulances and medical traffic. Central Mountain Air began service to the airport in October 2020 using Beechcraft 1900D aircraft. On June 14, 2021, Central Mountain Air announced they would suspend service on July 5, 2021. In May 2021,

Air Canada Air Canada is the flag carrier and the largest airline of Canada, by size and passengers carried. Air Canada is headquartered in the borough of Saint-Laurent in the city of Montreal. The airline, founded in 1937, provides scheduled and cha ...

announced they will be using 78 passenger De Havilland Dash-8-400s when they resume service following route suspension due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. 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. Internatio ...

Nav Canada Nav Canada (styled as NAV CANADA) is a privately run, non-profit corporation that owns and operates Canada's civil air navigation system (ANS). It was established by statute in accordance with the ''Civil Air Navigation Services Commercializati ...

and is staffed by the

Canada Border Services Agency The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA; , ''ASFC'') is a federal law enforcement agency that is responsible for border guard, border control (i.e. protection and surveillance), immigration enforcement, and Customs, customs services in Canada. ...

(CBSA). The customs at CBSA officers at this airport can handle

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

aircraft only, with no more than 15 passengers.

Airlines and destinations

References

External links

*
Page about this airport
on COPA's ''Places to Fly'' airport directory {{authority control Certified airports in British Columbia Castlegar, British Columbia