Keats Point Airport

Military Decommissioning. The airport's sole purpose was to provide logistical support to the Keats Point (CAM-F) Intermediate Distant Early Warning (DEW) Line radar station. When the DEW Line system became technologically obsolete and was replaced by the North Warning System in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the CAM-F station was shut down, and its dedicated support airstrip was subsequently abandoned.

The site is abandoned and remediated. The physical outline of the single gravel runway is still clearly visible in satellite imagery, but it is unmaintained, unserviceable, and not legally usable as an aerodrome. As part of a large-scale environmental initiative, the Canadian Department of National Defence (DND) has overseen the demolition of the old station buildings and the extensive cleanup of the site to remove hazardous materials like PCBs, fuel contaminants, and other waste from the Cold War era. The area is now remote, unoccupied, and unused.

Keats Point Airport was a vital piece of Cold War infrastructure. Constructed in the mid-1950s as part of a massive joint US-Canadian defense project, its function was to enable the construction, staffing, and resupply of the CAM-F I-Site. These intermediate sites filled radar gaps between the larger Main and Auxiliary DEW Line stations. The airport's operations consisted of regular flights carrying personnel, food, fuel, and equipment. It typically handled rugged, Short Take-Off and Landing (STOL) capable aircraft suited for its short, gravel runway and the harsh Arctic conditions, such as the de Havilland Canada DHC-4 Caribou, DHC-6 Twin Otter, and the Douglas C-47 Skytrain.

There are no known plans or prospects for reopening Keats Point Airport. Its original military purpose is gone, and there is no nearby community, industrial project, or significant tourism to warrant the substantial investment required to restore, certify, and maintain an airport in such a remote and challenging Arctic environment. Any future development in the region would likely necessitate the construction of a new, modern airstrip tailored to specific project needs.