Mont-Joli Airport

Airport in Mont Joli, Quebec, Canada

Mont Joli Airport is located north northwest of Mont Joli, Quebec, Canada. It is the only airport with scheduled service in the Bas Saint Laurent region.

In the summer of 1940 the Royal Canadian Air Force selected a flat area of farmland between Mont Joli Station (on the Montreal Halifax Canadian National Railway mainline) and the Saint Lawrence River for a military airfield. Construction on the aerodrome began in October 1941 and was completed by April 1942 at a cost of $200,000. Three paved runways and 50 buildings were constructed for what became known as RCAF Station Mont Joli. Inaugurated on April 15, 1942, RCAF Station Mont Joli was a training base for the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan and hosted No. 9 Bombing and Gunnery School from 15 December 1941 until 14 April 1945. RCAF Station Mont Joli was used by RCAF Eastern Air Command during the Battle of the St. Lawrence as a coastal patrol base; during 1942–1944, Canadian cargo ships and warships were sunk by German U boats in an effort to close the Saint Lawrence Seaway off to shipping. Aircraft staging out of Mont Joli were among those used to ward off U boats and ensure the safety of shipping to the eastern tip of the Gaspé Peninsula at Cap Gaspé.

RCAF Station Mont Joli was decommissioned by the air force in 1945 and became the property of the Department of Transport (now Transport Canada) on December 15, 1945 for use as a civilian airport.

Its ownership was transferred again in 1995 to the "Régie intermunicipale de l’aéroport régional de Mont Joli". It is the busiest airport in eastern Quebec, though still very far from the Québec/Jean Lesage International Airport in Quebec City and Montréal Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport in Montreal. In 2007 a second runway (15/33) was opened and runway 06/24 decreased in length from 6000 feet (1829 m) to 5000 feet (1524 m). In 2017, runway 06/24 was once again extended to 6000 feet (1829 m), in order to accommodate the B737 800. Sunwing Airlines started flying that aircraft type from Mont Joli to Punta Cana in December 2017. Air Canada indefinitely suspended its operations at Mont Joli Airport in June 2020 due to the financial impact of the COVID 19 pandemic in Canada.