Is Iqaluit Airport closed?

Question

After seeing this question (and its answers):

Why did the Swiss International Air LX40 (a 777-300ER) emergency land at Iqaluit airport?

my interest in Iqaluit (and its airport) was piqued. But, the satellite/aerial view in Google Maps shows the single runway at YFB (ICAO: CYFB) closed (big "X"s painted on the runway). Refer to below screenshot (Google maps satellite view):

Is Iqaluit Airport closed?

Note that the copyright date on the images does not necessarily tell you when the image was taken, only when the image was added to the database and posted online. — Moshe Katz, May 21 '17 at 23:51

score 21 · Accepted Answer · answered May 21 '17 at 18:47

21

At the time of the imagery, it appears the airport was undergoing major renovation, now completed at least insofar as the runway is concerned. See iqaluit-airport-s-runway-gets-a-facelift-as-construction-completed. During the reconstruction they kept a minimal portion of the runway open for operations, enough to bring 757s in but not enough to get 767s in.

If you look at the image, note all the construction activity and also the parked aircraft. Note that the Xs are on the right side of rwy 34, and leaving the left half of the runway open. Farther down the rwy the Xs are in the middle, so I believe the image was taken while they were reconstructing the rwy while leaving enough of it usable for operations.

answered May 21 '17 at 18:47

Terry

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This accident description (accident on July 8th, 2015, runway excursion on half width runway) talks about closure of half the runway and related Notams. – mins May 21 '17 at 20:07
@mins Wow. I bet that crew never forgot to check the NOTAMs again... – reirab Nov 04 '17 at 19:10
@reirab, yep, read and understand that "100 ft" closed was for width, not length! But it happened again three days later. – mins Nov 04 '17 at 19:27
@mins: NOTAM: READ THE F*!%ING NOTAMS. – Vikki May 01 '18 at 16:58

Is Iqaluit Airport closed?

1 Answers1