Fontas Airport

The airport was a private airstrip built to support the oil and gas industry in the remote Montney Formation region of British Columbia. Its closure was due to economic and operational factors, not a specific incident. Common reasons for the closure of such industrial airstrips include: the completion of the primary construction or drilling phase of the adjacent energy facility, improved all-weather road access making air transport redundant, a downturn in commodity prices leading to cost-cutting, or the automation of the facility which reduced the need for frequent crew changes.

The airport is closed and abandoned. The runway is unmaintained, overgrown with vegetation, and unusable by aircraft. The adjacent industrial site appears to still be active, but it is now serviced by a network of resource roads. The former airstrip remains as a visible scar on the landscape but serves no aviation purpose.

Fontas Airport's significance was purely logistical and industrial. It was not a public airport. It served as a critical transportation link for a remote natural gas plant or compressor station, enabling the transport of personnel for crew changes, light cargo, and providing a staging point for emergency medical evacuations. The 3,000-foot turf/gravel runway would have handled STOL (Short Take-Off and Landing) capable charter aircraft common in northern Canada, such as the DHC-6 Twin Otter, Pilatus PC-12, or Cessna Caravan.

There are no known plans or prospects for reopening Fontas Airport. Its reactivation would be solely dependent on a new, large-scale industrial project in the immediate vicinity requiring dedicated air access, which is highly unlikely. The existing road infrastructure and proximity to larger regional airports like Fort Nelson (CYYE) make the reopening of this small, private strip economically unviable.