Departure
95%
vs 95% ▼ 1
MY FS FLIGHTS
MY FS FLIGHTS
Ottawa Macdonald-Cartier International Airport (CYOW) is the principal gateway to Canada's capital, sitting on the site of the old RCAF Uplands station south of the city. It offers a full set of hard runways, an instrument landing system, and round-the-clock air traffic control, making it a straightforward if busy destination for a simulated cross-country into the National Capital Region. Its long history as a British Commonwealth Air Training Plan school and its role as home to the Ottawa Flying Club and an RCAF transport squadron give it real depth for the history-minded virtual pilot.
Ottawa Macdonald-Cartier International Airport, known by its ICAO code CYOW and IATA code YOW, is the main airport serving Ottawa, Ontario and the wider National Capital Region, which includes Gatineau, Quebec across the river. It sits on a plateau at Uplands, on the southern edge of the city, and today combines a major scheduled-airline operation with general aviation and military flying. For a simulator pilot the field is worth visiting both for its scale, with three paved runways and an ILS, and for its history as a wartime training base and long-serving home of the Ottawa Flying Club.
CYOW lies within controlled Class C airspace and is classified as an airport of entry, with Canada Border Services Agency staff and US border preclearance facilities on site, reflecting its status as an international gateway. It is located about eight nautical miles south of downtown Ottawa. Traffic bound to or from Quebec airspace can expect to work Quebec Radio on the published remote communications outlet frequency.
The airport has three physical runways. The main runway, 14/32, is a hard, lit surface 9,918 to 9,919 feet long and carries an ILS on runway 32. The second runway, 07/25, is also hard and lit, at 7,981 feet in both directions, with an ILS serving runway 07. The shorter cross runway, 04/22, is a hard, lit strip, listed at 3,053 feet for runway 04 and 3,300 feet for runway 22. Field elevation is 354 feet.
Ottawa Tower operates on 118.8 MHz, with Ottawa Ground on 121.9 MHz and Ottawa Clearance Delivery on 119.4 MHz. Ottawa Terminal works arriving and departing traffic on 127.7 MHz, with dedicated Ottawa Arrivals on 135.15 MHz and Ottawa Departures on 128.175 MHz. The English ATIS is broadcast on 121.15 MHz and the French ATIS on 132.95 MHz. A remote communications outlet, Quebec Radio, is available on 123.15 MHz. Runway 32 and runway 07 are each served by an instrument landing system.
As a Class C controlled aerodrome with full air traffic control, arriving and departing aircraft are handled through Ottawa Terminal, Tower and Ground rather than by informal circuit joining; pilots should expect to receive routing and sequencing instructions from ATC on the appropriate frequency for their phase of flight, using the ATIS to obtain current weather and runway information before contacting the controlling unit.
The airport traces its origins to a flying field opened at Uplands, on a plateau south of Ottawa, by the Ottawa Flying Club, which still operates from the field today. During the Second World War, as Uplands, it hosted No. 2 Service Flying Training School under the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan, providing advanced pilot training on Harvard and Yale aircraft. In 1950 the nearby farming community of Bowesville, settled in 1821, was expropriated to allow the airport to expand southward, and the current main terminal now stands on the site of the old village crossroads. Through the 1950s, while still known as Uplands and operated jointly as a civilian and military field, it was the busiest airport in Canada by takeoffs and landings, peaking at 307,079 movements in 1959. A new terminal and longer runways were built for the jet age, but the terminal opening was delayed after a United States Air Force F-104 Starfighter went supersonic in a low pass during the December 1959 opening ceremony, the resulting sonic boom shattering glass and damaging structural elements in what has been called the most expensive five seconds in Canadian civil aviation history; the terminal finally opened in April 1960. The airport was renamed Ottawa International Airport in 1964 and became Ottawa Macdonald-Cartier International Airport in 1993, honouring statesmen Sir John A. Macdonald and Sir George-Etienne Cartier. It was formerly a military base known as CFB Ottawa South or CFB Uplands, and the Royal Canadian Air Force's 412 Transport Squadron, which provides air transport for Canadian and foreign government officials, remains based there.
Ottawa Macdonald-Cartier International Airport is now a major hub for Porter Airlines, a focus city for Air Canada and Air Transat, and a home base for Canadian North, alongside its role as an airport of entry with Canada Border Services Agency staffing and US preclearance facilities. General aviation activity continues through the long-established Ottawa Flying Club, and the Royal Canadian Air Force's 412 Transport Squadron remains based at the field. The scale of scheduled and military operations means visiting simulator pilots should expect a busy, fully controlled Class C environment typical of a national capital's principal airport.
