Richardson Airport

The closure was due to economic reasons, specifically the completion or suspension of the resource project it was built to support. Located deep within the Athabasca oil sands region, the airstrip was a private facility created for logistical support (transporting personnel and supplies) for a specific oil, gas, or mineral exploration/extraction operation. Once the project concluded or was put on hold, there was no financial justification to continue maintaining the remote aerodrome.

The site is an abandoned and derelict airstrip. Current satellite imagery clearly shows the outline of a single, unpaved runway that is being reclaimed by the surrounding boreal forest. The runway surface is significantly overgrown with grass and shrubs, rendering it unusable. There is no evidence of any remaining buildings, lighting, or other airport infrastructure. The land has not been repurposed and remains undeveloped wilderness.

Richardson Airport's significance was purely industrial and localized. It served as a critical piece of infrastructure for a remote resource project in the northern Alberta wilderness, an area otherwise inaccessible by road. It would have handled rugged Short Take-Off and Landing (STOL) aircraft, such as the de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter, DHC-2 Beaver, or similar bush planes capable of operating from short, unpaved runways. The airport never served public or scheduled commercial flights and was solely a means to support industrial operations in the bush.

There are no known plans or prospects for reopening Richardson Airport. A reopening would be entirely dependent on the launch of a new, major industrial project in its immediate vicinity that would require remote air access. Given the immense cost of rehabilitating and certifying the airstrip, and with current oil sands development concentrated in more established areas, the prospect of it being reopened is extremely low.