Departure
94%
vs 95% ▼ 1
MY FS FLIGHTS
MY FS FLIGHTS
Peace River Airport (CYPE) lies about five nautical miles west of the town of Peace River in northern Alberta, offering a single long, lit asphalt runway suitable for everything from light singles to short-field-equipped Boeing 737s. Once the hub of Peace Air and a site personally selected by aviation pioneer Wop May, it remains an active regional field with a mandatory-frequency advisory service and Edmonton Centre oversight.
Peace River Airport serves the town of Peace River in northern Alberta and is operated by the Peace River Regional Airport Association. It is a former airline hub with a single sizeable paved runway, making it a straightforward and interesting VFR destination for pilots exploring the Peace Country region, with a history stretching back to the earliest days of Alberta's bush-flying era.
The airport sits in the Municipal District of Peace No. 135, about 5 nautical miles west of the Town of Peace River, Alberta. Overhead air traffic services are provided by Edmonton Centre, and the field is served by a mandatory frequency (MF) advisory arrangement rather than a staffed control tower.
The airport has one physical runway, 04/22, measuring 4,957 feet and surfaced in asphalt (hard surface), with runway lighting on both directions. There is no ILS approach.
Peace River Airport operates on an Aerodrome/Ground (A/G) mandatory frequency of 122.3 MHz, which also serves as the Flight Service Station (FSS) frequency. A remote communications outlet (RCO) for Edmonton Radio is available on 123.275 MHz, and overhead traffic is worked by Edmonton Centre on 133.275 MHz.
Pilots can use the Town of Peace River, about five nautical miles to the east, along with Highway 2 running alongside the runway and the ravines cut by Strong Creek to the west and a tributary of St. Germaine Creek to the east, as prominent features for locating and orienting toward the field.
The original airport site lay on the west bank of the Peace River some three miles south of the present town, but it was abandoned after a near-fatal landing accident involving a pilot flying for Grant McConachie's United Air Transport Limited. The present site, on NW Section 29, Township 83, Range 22, West of the 5th Meridian, was chosen by the noted Canadian aviator Wop May. Originally the airport had three runways, 04/22, 08/26 and 18/36, of which only 04/22 remains in use. In the autumn of 1942 an American Corps of Engineers detachment extended runway 04/22 by a further 2,000 feet, and the American government also established a weather station there, likely connected with the Alaska Highway construction effort. On 28 and 29 May 1949 the airport hosted one of the region's first airshows, with the Air Cadets welcoming the RCAF, which brought a helicopter, two Harvard trainers, an Avro Anson and a Beech Expeditor, from which two parachutists jumped. The airport closed in June 1960 for major construction, during which the runway was paved and a new air terminal built; it reopened for major airline service in January 1961, with an official opening ceremony on 9 August 1961 marking a 40-year lease agreement between the Department of Transport and the Town of Peace River. In 1964 the first Flight Service Specialists were hired to staff the radio, replacing earlier informal arrangements in which airline agents and the airport weather office had handled pilot communications from home-based radios. A new terminal building opened on 8 September 1984. The Town of Peace River purchased the airport from Transport Canada in 1996 following the National Airports Policy. The airport was the hub of Peace Air until that airline ceased operations in May 2007.
Ownership of the airport transferred from the Town of Peace River to the Peace River Regional Airport Association Ltd. in December 2020, with the association committing to continued fire suppression services and financial support over the following two years. The existing air terminal building is expected to be decommissioned, and a steering committee involving several local municipalities has been examining the airport's viability and regionalization. The 5,000-foot runway is capable of accommodating short-field-equipped Boeing 737-600, -700 and -800 aircraft, though further extension is constrained by a ravine to the west and a highway to the east.
