Iqaluit Airport

Iqaluit Airport (YFB) is Canada's only international airport north of the 60th parallel to offer regular scheduled jet service and the sole air gateway to the Inuit territory of Nunavut. Located in the capital city of Iqaluit on southern Baffin Island at 63.76 N, the airport sits at 110 ft (34 m) elevation on the shore of Frobisher Bay. Its single 8,605-ft (2,623-m) asphalt runway 16/34 is 200 ft (61 m) wide - substantially wider than most comparable Arctic airports - a legacy of its Second World War and Cold War role as 'Crystal Two', a U.S. Army Air Forces staging base on the Great Circle route to Europe. YFB is the operational hub of Canadian North, with connections to Ottawa, Montreal, Kuujjuaq and an extensive Arctic regional network reaching Pond Inlet, Kimmirut and Resolute Bay. The airport handles 55 routes to 39 destinations on 16 airlines (2026), many operated by combi-configured Boeing 737-700/800s carrying passengers and freight together; cargo accounts for a disproportionately large share of traffic because almost everything consumed in the Qikiqtaaluk region arrives by air. A striking yellow terminal opened in 2017 to replace the original 1986 building, doubling capacity to handle 150,000 passengers per year. Strategically, YFB is also a NATO-designated diversion airport for trans-Atlantic widebodies and has supported U.S. Air Force exercises, Canadian Rangers patrols and royal visits. The airport operates 24/7 in temperatures that routinely fall below -40 C (-40 F) and is one of the few facilities worldwide equipped with permafrost-rated runway drainage. YFB is owned by the Government of Nunavut and managed by Nunavut Airport Services under public-private partnership. Because Iqaluit has no road or rail connection to the Canadian network and is re-supplied by sealift only during the brief August-October ice-free window, the airport is uniquely load-bearing for the capital's year-round supply chain - fresh food, construction materials and medical evacuations to Ottawa all arrive by air.