Kuujjuaq Airport | |||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Summary | |||||||||||||||
Airport type | Public | ||||||||||||||
Operator |
Kativik Regional Government Administration régionale Kativik |
||||||||||||||
Location | Kuujjuaq, Quebec | ||||||||||||||
Time zone | EST (UTC−05:00) | ||||||||||||||
• Summer (DST) | EDT (UTC−04:00) | ||||||||||||||
Elevation AMSL | 131 ft / 40 m | ||||||||||||||
Coordinates | 58°05′42″N 068°25′20″W / 58.09500°N 68.42222°WCoordinates: 58°05′42″N 068°25′20″W / 58.09500°N 68.42222°W | ||||||||||||||
Map | |||||||||||||||
Location in Quebec | |||||||||||||||
Runways | |||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||
Statistics (2010) | |||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||
Aircraft movements | 12,485 |
---|
Kuujjuaq Airport, (IATA: YVP, ICAO: CYVP), is located 1.5 nautical miles (2.8 km; 1.7 mi) southwest of Kuujjuaq, Quebec, Canada.
The airport site at Fort Chimo was located and surveyed on 12 July 1941 by a USAAF team under Captain Elliott Roosevelt, operating by amphibious aircraft out of Gander, Newfoundland and Labrador. The chosen site was five miles upstream from the trading post, on the opposite shore. River access was difficult due to shifting, sandy banks and ice and high tides in the estuary. Code-named Crystal I, Fort Chimo was founded on 10 October 1941 by about a 12-man weather station and radio communications crew under Antarctic veteran Lt. Cdr. Isaac Schlossbach. Runway construction commenced next summer. The Crystal stations were part of the Crimson East project for trans-Atlantic ferry flights, Chimo being referred to as “Bookie”. Fort Chimo did not actually serve in this intended capacity, but the station was useful for weather reporting, communications, and local support duties. Canada officially took control in 1944, although American crews remained for a period. Seasonal resupply was by U.S. Coast Guard cutters.
Fort Chimo was one of three "Crystal" sites in the Canadian Arctic Region, Frobisher Bay Air Base (now Iqaluit Airport), Northwest Territories being "Crystal II", and a station on Padloping Island being "Crystal III". A detachment of the 8th Weather Squadron, Air Transport Command (ATC) took up residence at the station on 1 October 1942. The initial mission of the Crystal sites was to provide long-range weather information to the combat forces then building up in the United Kingdom.