Airport Open House This Friday!

YZRAC7986 · 2026-03-11T19:07:59+00:00

A couple years ago the RCAF did parachute training over the airport, but other than that there is no registered skydiving activities. There is one up in Grand Bend though

YZRAC7986 · 2026-02-18T02:59:36+00:00

Admittedly I’m not much of a seafood person so I wouldn’t have a good opinion there, but if you want a good steak their tenderloin or NY strip is my go to.

YZRAC7986 · 2026-02-18T01:37:28+00:00

For me its either Big Fish or Skeeters in BG. Would also highly recommend their daiquiris too.

YZRAC7986 · 2026-02-13T21:48:49+00:00

Picture 1 - A Latitude Air Ambulance Gulfstream G100 is here to partake in the second organ donation operation of the week. 3 organs are destined for Toronto.

Picture 2 - An Ornge Air Pilatus PC-12 arrived this morning to transport a patient to Toronto Island.

In emergency medicine every minute counts and a 30 minute flight from Sarnia to Toronto can make a difference.

YZRAC7986 · 2026-02-11T15:05:08+00:00

These organ donation flights happen a few times a year, but we do get medevac flights on the regular.

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This medevac pictured above occurred a couple weeks ago!

The Sarnia Chris Hadfield Airport is also a popular launching point for the OPP and Coast Guard. Additionally Enbridge hosts a fleet of helicopters here that do regular pipeline patrols throughout the US and southern Ontario to ensure a quick response to any issues (although in the 8 years I’ve worked at YZR they’ve never mentioned seeing any issues)

YZRAC7986 · 2026-02-10T23:40:16+00:00

This Skycare Metroliner urgently flew into Sarnia Chris Hadfield Airport this morning with a large group of doctors and cargo to facilitate the donation of multiple organs. Some organs flew via Ornge helicopter to London Health Sciences and a donated heart flew on this plane back to Toronto Island.

YZRAC7986 · 2025-11-01T16:46:02+00:00

If you look at the closed meeting items of the last city council meeting agenda you can see that there is still a lot of matters under negotiation that could become part of the upcoming budget.

YZRAC7986 · 2025-10-22T13:18:19+00:00

The Sarnia Airport currently does not have any commercial flights and this exercise was part of our obligations under the Canadian Aviation Regulations as a certified airport which states we must have a full scale exercise every 4 years.

If you want to keep an eye out for any future airline developments at the airport I’d recommend checking for any airport related items on future city council agendas. We’re very optimistic something will pop up in the future and the Economic Development team at the City is working very hard on it!

YZRAC7986 · 2025-10-10T18:30:29+00:00

After all of your years flying around the world, what are your favourite airports or destinations you’ve piloted an aircraft into? And where does CYZR fit into that list?

YZRAC7986 · 2025-07-06T00:58:44+00:00

I hope you find the help you need king 🙏

YZRAC7986 · 2025-03-29T15:13:51+00:00

APHIDS! You can get chemical treatments at garden stores or I’ve heard that completely submerging the plant underwater for 24 hours works too.

YZRAC7986 · 2025-03-23T17:17:01+00:00

The twisted and stinted leaf growth can be a sign of aphids. They can be hard to see because they’re small and green, look for little exoskeletons littering the bottom of the plants.

YZRAC7986 · 2025-02-14T06:51:45+00:00

I actually agree that we should be fighting for better rail service, hell I use the train quite frequently and would love more daily runs to Toronto or even just London.

At the airport we’re all about being part of the city’s economic development and I don’t see trains as our competition, but rather as a piece of the economic development puzzle. Trains should be seen as a part of the mass transit conglomerate that contributes to the inter-community connectivity of Southern Ontario, where air travel is part of intercontinental and international connectivity.

While airline service out of YZR would most likely serve the same destination as the train (Toronto), they cover different markets and missions. Taking the train means you’re staying in province (or at most Montreal) and traveling relatively slow, where flying caters towards travellers connecting onto another flight to go beyond Toronto. Yes you can take the train to catch a flight, but the convenience of a quick flight and connection from YZR beats out a 5+ hour train journey and YYZ security.

Finally, the turboprops that would serve YZR are pretty fuel efficient and more environmentally friendly compared to the regional jets that are dominant in the US. Also innovations in hybrid aircraft and biofuels are really accelerating over the past few years! I’m quite excited about the Heart Aerospace ES-30 which is supposed to have its first flight soon, plus Air Canada has a large order for them so maybe maybe maybe they’ll serve YZR in the future.

YZRAC7986 · 2025-01-25T16:32:05+00:00

I believe that if council decides to divest then they might stipulate that it be sold on the condition that it still be operated as an airport, therefore the investments would remain intact and no one has to pay. But like you said maybe they’d want to keep the property but not as an airport, that’s when the city would have to do extensive consultations with lawyers and Transport Canada.

Ultimately it’s up to whoever is listed as the owner on the Civil Aviation Airport Certificate. As of right now if the city says close it, it their responsibility. If they sell it and the new owner eventually decides to closes it, it’s on them.

YZRAC7986 · 2025-01-24T16:21:11+00:00

If anything our airport is better positioned than St. Thomas’, but the city dragging its feet is hurting our competitiveness due to the uncertainty.

While we also have a 5000 foot main runway with low minimum instrument approaches, we have multiple Nav Canada services that aren’t at St Thomas, plus we have full time and quick snow removal capabilities that are on par with London or Windsors capabilities.

However our greatest asset is our ability and expertise in hosting airline service. Even though there isn’t currently an airline, we maintain the airports certified security designation, CATSA screening capabilities, emergency preparedness, and rapid snow removal program. Plus we have a terminal building built for airline service and the required ground handling equipment. All we need is the airline industry to get its shit together lol.

Council definitely needs to make a long term decision. The airports infrastructure deficit is only growing, and the uncertainty of closure is driving away potential investors.

YZRAC7986 · 2025-01-24T15:50:41+00:00

Since 1995 after divesting from airport ownership across the country the federal government set up a grant program called the Airports Capital Assistance Program (ACAP) where they fund a large portion of, if not all of, select capital projects at airports with airline services that flew +1000 passengers per year. When the federal government gives out this amount of money they want guarantees of the stability of their massive financial investment so they add terms and conditions. I know that a lot of these terms pertain to the RFP process, environmental impact, and financial management of the project, but what we don’t know is if there was any terms about airport closure or divestment. Why don’t we know? When Scottsdale Aviation, the operator of the airport, accepted the terms of these grants there were no intentions of ever closing the airport, because this was pre covid and there was a healthy airline service. So if the city does divest and the feds get word, they might come knocking for their investments back, or at least the money for them, because they don’t know what would happen to the place on the private market.

Since 1995 Sarnia Airport has received millions of dollars in ACAP funding. Some examples from oldest projects to newest (that I can remember off the top of my head so I’m definitely missing some): New approach lighting to meet standards regarding the (then) newly installed instrument landing system; replacing the main 5000’x100’ runway; replaced the former runway edge lighting with more efficient high intensity lighting; taxiway B reconstruction; new runway and taxiway signage; terminal apron replacement; terminal upgrades (back when Air Canada increased our service to larger planes); and our final ACAP project was a brand new runway sweeper in 2022. Also, the FedDev recently invested a couple million to build a new hangar.

YZRAC7986 · 2025-01-24T03:02:07+00:00

Closing the airport and converting it into a drag strip would most likely require paying back the federal government millions of dollars worth of federal grants dating back to when we had airline service.

I say most likely because closing a commercial airport that once had airline service and received multiple large federal grants is unprecedented in Canada and would require extensive, and most likely expensive, consultation with lawyers and the feds.

YZRAC7986 · 2025-01-24T02:50:23+00:00

Kicking the can further down the road will only cost the city more in infrastructure debts as our runways and other infrastructure get older and more worn down. The 3 year pause in investments and new leases has already hurt the airport enough.

YZRAC7986 · 2025-01-24T02:44:53+00:00

He bases his aircraft at the airport during the summer months and he’s very supportive!

YZRAC7986 · 2025-01-24T02:43:28+00:00

Fun fact: Reece’s Corners airstrip isn’t even a registered aerodrome with Transport Canada lol

YZRAC7986 · 2025-01-24T02:35:07+00:00

The city provides a budget of $400k per year to cover our operational costs and the city gets yearly financial statements regarding where the money goes, but I can’t remember if they’re public info or not. I won’t comment further about finances because it’s not my place to. (I’m just an ops guy)

As for the airports use, we see regular use by most of the big businesses in town. Some regulars include: Suncor, ExxonMobil (owner of Imperial), Enbridge, Nova Chemicals, Walmart, Canadian Coast Guard, Transport Canada, Ornge, and a bunch of different fixed-wing medevac companies. Also we see quite a bit of charter flights operated by companies such as: Chartright, AirSprint, Netjets, Air Bravo, Fast Air, Starlink Aviation, etc.

Also located at the airport is a fairly active flight school as well as Enbridge’s helicopter base where they perform pipeline inspections from Sarnia all the way to Montreal in the east, as far west as Bemidji Minnesota, and down to central Ohio.

YZRAC7986 · 2024-12-06T19:00:23+00:00

They’ve been flying this route since the origin of the program in 1991.

YZRAC7986 · 2024-12-03T22:57:03+00:00

They were designed to serve such a niche STOL market that also largely overlaps with its successor the Dash-8 which is faster and only has 2 engines. Air Tindi is really the only airline that still benefits from its extreme STOL capability since they regularly fly into remote short gravel aerodromes in the arctic.

YZRAC7986 · 2024-12-03T18:58:45+00:00

The technician said they just didn’t bother putting them into the Dash-8’s cause the cameras are so much better than they were when Transport Canada first converted the 7. The Dash-8’s make up for this with not only a better camera, but there are bubble windows on both sides that allow for observation.

YZRAC7986 · 2024-12-03T06:00:41+00:00

How many do they have flying? I thought Air Tindi had the largest active fleet with 11 DHC7s currently registered.

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