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Sept-Îles Airport (CYZV) serves the town of Sept-Îles on the north shore of the Saint Lawrence River in eastern Quebec, its long asphalt runways and full ILS reflecting a history as a wartime staging field turned regional and business-aviation hub. For a VFR visitor it offers straightforward radio procedures, a customs-handling capability for general aviation, and generous runway lengths that make it an easy and interesting stop along the North Shore.
Sept-Îles Airport lies on Quebec's Côte-Nord, a few nautical miles from the town it serves, and is operated by Transport Canada as a designated regional/local airport under the National Airports Policy. It is classified as an airport of entry, with Canada Border Services Agency officers available on a call-out basis to clear general aviation aircraft carrying no more than fifteen passengers. For a sim pilot, the combination of three substantial hard runways, an ILS approach and a location on the wild, sparsely settled North Shore of the Saint Lawrence makes it a distinctive and worthwhile destination.
The airport sits on the north shore of the Saint Lawrence River in the North Coast (Côte-Nord) region of eastern Quebec, close to the town of Sept-Îles. It lies within Montreal Centre's area of responsibility for en-route traffic, with a flight service station providing local aerodrome advisory service.
Sept-Îles has three physical hard-surfaced runways, all lit. Runway 09/27 is 6,564 feet long, runway 05/23 is 5,965 feet long, and runway 13/31 is 5,760 feet long. An ILS is available on runway 09. Field elevation is 167 feet.
Traffic at Sept-Îles is coordinated by a flight service station on 118.1 MHz, which also serves as the mandatory frequency (MF) for the aerodrome. A remote communications outlet on 123.15 MHz provides access to Quebec Radio, and ATIS is broadcast on 124.8 MHz. En-route contact with Montreal Centre is available on 135.55 MHz. The field is equipped with an ILS to serve instrument arrivals on runway 09.
Sept-Îles operates under a mandatory frequency (MF) area, meaning all aircraft in the vicinity must monitor and call the flight service station on 118.1 MHz when arriving, departing or operating in the circuit. Pilots should establish contact before entering the zone and follow FSS instructions for joining and sequencing, as is standard practice at Canadian MF aerodromes.
The airport lies close to the town of Sept-Îles itself, on the north shore of the Saint Lawrence River, with the river providing an obvious and unmistakable landmark for pilots approaching from the south or east along the coast.
Sept-Îles Airport has long served as a key aviation gateway to Quebec's North Shore, a region otherwise reliant on rail and sea links such as the Cartier Railway and the Quebec North Shore and Labrador Railway. Its role as an airport of entry, with customs officers dispatched from Québec City's Jean Lesage International Airport, reflects its historical importance for cross-border and remote-region traffic in a part of Quebec with few other significant airfields.
The airport continues to handle scheduled airline services, with Air Canada Express and PAL Airlines operating flights to Montréal-Trudeau, and PAL Airlines also serving Wabush. General aviation customs clearance is available but requires advance notice, effectively a form of prior permission for arriving aircraft needing to clear customs. The field remains an important regional hub for the Côte-Nord, handling close to 30,000 aircraft movements a year in recent statistics.
