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Lethbridge Airport (CYQL), formerly and still sometimes known as Lethbridge County Airport, lies a few miles south-southeast of the city of Lethbridge in southern Alberta. It offers two paved runways, an ILS approach, and a long and varied history stretching back to wartime pilot training under the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan, making it a straightforward and interesting VFR destination on the southern prairies.
Lethbridge Airport, originally known as Kenyon Field and long designated Lethbridge County Airport, serves the city of Lethbridge in southern Alberta. It is owned and operated by the City of Lethbridge, is classified as an airport of entry, and combines general aviation, flight training and limited scheduled air service with a deep wartime and airline heritage that gives it particular interest for the visiting sim pilot.
The airfield sits in Lethbridge County, about 4 nautical miles south-southeast of downtown Lethbridge, Alberta, roughly a 10 to 15 minute drive from the city centre. Traffic in the area is worked by Edmonton Centre, reachable on 132.75 MHz, with an Edmonton Radio remote communications outlet available on 122.5 MHz for flight service purposes. The airport is an airport of entry, with Canada Border Services Agency officers attending on a call-out basis from the Sweetgrass-Coutts border crossing, though customs handling here is limited to general aviation aircraft carrying no more than 15 passengers.
Lethbridge offers two paved runways. Runway 06/24 is 6,484 feet long, hard-surfaced and lit, with an ILS serving runway 06. Runway 13/31 is 5,491 feet long, also hard-surfaced and lit. Field elevation is 3,022 feet.
The airport operates on an aerodrome/ground (A/G) frequency of 121 MHz. ATIS is broadcast on 124.4 MHz. Edmonton Centre provides area control on 132.75 MHz, with an Edmonton Radio RCO on 122.5 MHz and a further radio frequency of 121 MHz also listed for the field. Runway 06 is equipped with an ILS for instrument approaches.
The site began as Kenyon Field, with passenger services starting in October 1938 and official opening following in June 1939. From 1939 to 1948 Lethbridge served as western Canada's primary airline hub, appearing on Trans-Canada Air Lines' transcontinental timetable linking Montreal, Ottawa, Winnipeg, Regina and Vancouver, with connections to Calgary and Edmonton, while the American carrier Western Air Lines flew Boeing 247D aircraft from Lethbridge to Salt Lake City via Cut Bank, Great Falls, Helena, Butte, Idaho Falls and Pocatello, making it at the time the only international destination Western served. At the outbreak of the Second World War the field became RCAF Station Lethbridge under the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan. No. 5 Elementary Flying Training School operated there from July 1940, staffed by instructors from the local flying club, before relocating to the calmer conditions of High River in June 1941 owing to Lethbridge's persistent winds. Late in 1941 the No. 8 Bombing and Gunnery School opened at the station, leasing around 100 square miles from the nearby Blood Indian Reserve for gunnery and bombing practice and flying Fairey Battles, Lysanders, Ansons and Bolingbrokes. No. 133 (Fighter) Squadron formed here in June 1942 with Hurricanes and Harvards before moving to Boundary Bay, British Columbia, in October 1942. The RCAF left Lethbridge in 1944. After the war the former RCAF mess hall was converted into an air terminal in 1947, later replaced by the present terminal building in 1979. Trans-Canada Air Lines, and subsequently Air Canada, continued to serve Lethbridge with Vickers Viscount turboprops on the Lethbridge-Calgary-Edmonton run before withdrawing scheduled service in the early 1970s. Time Air, founded in 1966 as Lethbridge Air Service, then grew to operate turboprop and Fokker F28 jet services, at one stage offering up to eight daily round trips to Calgary. Ownership passed to Lethbridge County in 1997, prompting the County Airport name, before transferring to the City of Lethbridge in 2018, with a further renaming to Lethbridge Airport approved by County council in 2013.
The airport remains an airport of entry with Canada Border Services Agency officers attending on a call-out basis, though customs clearance is restricted to general aviation flights of no more than 15 passengers. It hosted the biennial Lethbridge International Airshow until 2023, an event notable for a 2009 landing and take-off by a Boeing 747 Evergreen Supertanker on runway 05, the first time a 747 had used the airport. Scheduled airline service in recent years has been limited to a WestJet Encore link with Calgary.
