Gunnar Airport

Economic reasons. The airport was built to serve the Gunnar Uranium Mine and its associated town. When the mine ceased operations in 1963 due to a worldwide decline in uranium prices and the end of major government contracts, the town was abandoned by 1964. The airport, having lost its sole purpose, was closed and abandoned concurrently.

The airport is abandoned and part of the larger Gunnar Mine ghost town and remediation site. The gravel runway is still visible on satellite imagery but is unmaintained, overgrown, and unusable for aviation. The entire area, including the former airport, is undergoing a massive, multi-phase environmental cleanup and reclamation project managed by the Saskatchewan Research Council (SRC). The project focuses on addressing radioactive tailings, waste rock, and demolishing the derelict mine and town structures. The site is remote, inaccessible to the public, and is an active environmental remediation zone.

Gunnar Airport was a critical lifeline for the isolated Gunnar Mine and its bustling community of over 1,000 residents on the remote northern shore of Lake Athabasca. Operating from the mid-1950s until 1963, the airport was the primary means of transporting personnel, families, fresh food, mail, medical supplies, and urgent equipment. It overcame the logistical challenges of a region inaccessible by road. Operations would have included regular flights by bush planes (like the de Havilland Beaver and Otter) and larger transport aircraft (such as the Douglas DC-3) connecting Gunnar to Uranium City, Prince Albert, and Edmonton. The airport was indispensable to the mine's construction, operation, and the daily life of the town it supported during the height of the Cold War uranium boom.

There are zero plans or prospects for reopening Gunnar Airport. Its original economic driver, the mine, is gone forever. The regional aviation needs are served by the Uranium City Airport (CYBE), located approximately 25 km to the east. The land is part of a long-term environmental remediation project, making any future development, especially for aviation, highly improbable.