Bison Airport

Economic and logistical reasons. Bison Airport was a private aerodrome, not a public facility. It was established to support remote oil and gas operations in the Peace River oil sands region, likely for PanCanadian Petroleum (which became EnCana, now Ovintiv). Such private airstrips are often closed once a specific exploration or production phase is complete, when road access improves sufficiently, or when corporate consolidation makes the facility redundant and no longer cost-effective to maintain.

The airport is abandoned and defunct. Current satellite imagery shows a single, unpaved runway that is clearly visible but unmaintained and being reclaimed by vegetation. The physical infrastructure is deteriorating, rendering it unusable for any aviation activity. The surrounding area remains part of an active resource extraction region, but the airstrip itself is no longer in use.

The airport's significance was purely industrial. It provided critical air access for the transportation of personnel (engineers, geologists, crew changes) and time-sensitive, high-value cargo to a remote heavy oil facility. Operations would have consisted of private charter flights using rugged, STOL (Short Take-Off and Landing) capable aircraft, such as the de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter, Beechcraft King Air, or Cessna Caravan, connecting the site to larger hubs like Peace River, Grande Prairie, or Edmonton. It played no role in public commercial travel or military operations.

There are no known plans or prospects for reopening Bison Airport. The reopening of such a facility would require significant private investment and a compelling business case from a resource company, such as a major new project in the immediate vicinity lacking adequate road access. Given the extensive development of service roads in the region over the past two decades, the prospect of reopening is considered extremely low to non-existent.