NoneCA 🇨🇦 Closed Airport
CA-0076
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- ft
CA-NU
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Loading...GPS Code: Not available
Local Code: Not available
Location: 70.51667° N, -68.300003° E
Continent: NA
Type: Closed Airport
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Approximately 1992
The airport was closed due to military decommissioning. Its sole purpose was to serve the Cape Christian Distant Early Warning (DEW) Line station, designated FOX-4. With the end of the Cold War and the replacement of the DEW Line with the more modern North Warning System (NWS), the station and its supporting airstrip became obsolete and were deactivated.
The airport is abandoned and decommissioned. The site of the former DEW Line station, including the airstrip, has undergone extensive environmental cleanup and remediation managed by the Canadian Department of National Defence to remove hazardous materials like PCBs and fuel contaminants left from its operational period. While the long gravel runway is still clearly visible from satellite imagery, it is unmaintained, not certified for use, and considered unusable for any regular aviation. The entire area is an abandoned military site with no remaining infrastructure or services.
Cape Christian Airport was a critical logistical hub during the Cold War. Constructed in the mid-1950s as part of the DEW Line project, its primary function was to facilitate the construction and resupply of the FOX-4 radar station. The gravel runway was built to accommodate large, heavy-lift military transport aircraft, such as the Douglas C-124 Globemaster II and later the Lockheed C-130 Hercules. These aircraft ferried personnel, fuel, construction materials, food, and sensitive electronic equipment to the remote arctic site. The airport was an essential link in the continental air defense network, ensuring the 24/7 operation of the radar station which was designed to provide early warning of a potential Soviet bomber attack over the North Pole.
There are no known plans or prospects for reopening Cape Christian Airport. Its original military purpose is gone, and there is no economic or logistical need for a second airport in the area. The nearby community of Clyde River, Nunavut, is served by the certified Clyde River Airport (IATA: YCY, ICAO: CYCY), which handles all regional passenger and cargo flights. Reopening and maintaining the remote Cape Christian airstrip would be prohibitively expensive and is considered redundant.
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