Features Airports
St. Thomas airport a gateway to the area

St. Thomas Municipal Airport may be too small to land a Boeing 747, but the former Second World War Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) training base is big enough to nurture economic development and help attract the likes of Volkswagen to Elgin County.

“I don’t think we can land a 747, but we couldn’t accommodate the people coming off a plane that size either,” St. Thomas Mayor Joe Preston said in a recent interview. “We’re very close to an international airport in London anyways.

“St. Thomas has an airport that can do pretty much what we need it to do,” added Mayor Preston. “Even though it’s a smaller municipality-run airport, it’s great.”

On the checklist for a corporation like Volkswagen-PowerCo, with plans to build an electric vehicle (EV) battery plant in St. Thomas by 2027, “it’s a tick,” added Mayor Preston. “Yes, we have railways. Yes, we have roads. Yes, we have an airport. If you didn’t have it, it would be something missing from somebody’s checklist.”

The German motor vehicle manufacturer announced March 13, 2023 that it will build Volkswagen’s first overseas gigafactory at a 1,500-acre industrial park in the city’s north-east end. The plant is expected to employ 3,000 workers and create some 30,000 spinoff jobs.

“The Airport has always been a tool for investment attraction and business retention, with numerous companies using it for their corporate travel,” said Sean Dyke, Chief Executive Officer at the St. Thomas Economic Development Corp. “In fact, it was in part because we had an airport that we were able to attract one of our longest lasting industries, Gorman-Rupp Pumps Canada, to the city over six decades ago.

“Today, it is the home of Smart Aviation Solutions, who are doing amazing work on some impressive planes and Zimmer Air Services, one of very few helicopter providers in the area and a pleasure to work with when we need to show our community from above,” added Mr. Dyke. “It’s also been an important piece of our tourism infrastructure, from the plowing match to the air show and all the smaller events in between.”

While VW executives have yet to actually use St. Thomas Municipal Airport – they have relied on Toronto Pearson International Airport as a gateway to date – Mayor Preston said he expects that may change as the project here matures.

“The private use of the airport will always be impacted by the number of industries you have and we don’t know yet from the build at Volkswagen-PowerCo what emergency cargo may need to be done,” added Mayor Preston. “I think we may see this during the upfitting of the factory with some fairly specialized equipment.

“We’ll need to wait and see what happens there,” he said. “Of course, when you have a facility going at that rate, as busy as they will be, it can’t have down time. I think in the past, whether it’s executives form Magna (International), or Formet (Industries) or Presstran (Industries), or executives – in their day – for Lear Seating, and Timken, from Ohio, that was a pretty easy jump, just to use their private jets.”

St. Thomas Municipal Airport, at 44989 Talbot Line, 10 kms west of Aylmer, was established in 1941 as a RCAF air training base for the British Commonwealth Air Training Program (BCATP). It was operated by the Department of National Defense (DND) until the late 1940s as a ‘primary relief field’ for No. 14 Service Flying Training School Aylmer and No. 4 Bombing and Gunnery School Fingal.

There was a time the property was operated as a drag strip, however, the airport was acquired from DND by the City of St. Thomas in 1970. The land is still owned by Central Elgin. The property includes a wildlife woodlot area, 340 acres of farmland, 39 buildings, and aviation equipment.

The three runways were built approximately 2,640 feet (805 m) long, but the main east-west runway, referred to as ‘09/27,’ was expanded to 5,050 ft (1,539 m) in 1982. Two runways are now in operation, with the third used mostly as a taxiway.

The most significant capital expense at the airport are its three runways, said Mayor Preston. A $1.1-million non-repayable FedDev Ontario investment in 2021 was used to improve airport operations through the construction of 8,000 square-meters of ramp space to accommodate the parking, fueling and servicing of regional aircraft.

With increased commercial and agricultural activity, a runway reconstruction reserve has been established. The reserve will require several years of investment before enough money is available to reconstruct a single runway.

“When you consider that we (the City) have one full-time and eight part-time people working at the airport, and there’s 91 other people working out there, there are some going enterprises at our airport,” Mayor Preston continued. “We try to make it break even as much as we can. Airports are a lot like transit systems. It’s hard to make them breakeven but try not having one.”

In 2002, St. Thomas reported 27,456 aircraft movements, but activity has diminished over the years. In 2003, there were 17,371 movements, 13,720 in 2004, and 12,575 in 2005. By 2006, there were only 944 movements.

“The number of flights varies drastically in rural airports,” said Mayor Preston. “You’ll get a corporate jet in that’s just going to Gorman-Rupp Pumps Canada, and then some of them are people coming in to play golf at Redtail Golf Course.

“The original owners of Redtail (London businessmen Chris Goodwin and John Drake) had lots of people from around the world who came. (Scottish actor) Sean Connery was one,” he added. Redtail is an exclusive golf course near Port Stanley. “We’re happy to sell them a full tank of aviation fuel and let their pilots bunk up at the rest spot … I would fully expect that as we grow the industries in the community, we’ll have more of that.”

The size of aircraft that can use the airport depends on the type of aircraft and its capabilities, including its weight, as well as its acceleration and stopping capabilities. The airport is designed to accommodate aircraft with an ALN (Aircraft Load Rating) of 9. While a B-737 could fly from St. Thomas, repetitive uses would stress the runway and reduce its lifespan. The airport is best suited for Dash 8-300s and Short S360s. All piston and turbo prop aircraft, as well as small and large corporate class jets can be accommodated.

The city maintains the property through agricultural, commercial and general aviation leases, as well as fuel sales and aviation services. The farmland is leased for cultivation of cannabis and food. Dale Arndt is the Airport Superintendent.

As a ‘fixed-base operator’ certified by Transport Canada, the airport may handle passengers, fueling, de-icing, ground handling, towing, parking, hospitality, and pilot services. It manages corporate, commercial, military, search and rescue, and medical flights, as well as airshows and plowing matches. St. Thomas Airport hosts the Great Lakes International Airshow, a two-day event attracting classic and modern aircraft from across North America.

The airport is classified as an airport of entry by Nav Canada and is staffed by the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) on a call-out basis from the London International Airport.

“There’s nothing yet describing what will happen on the rest of the land,” said Mayor Preston. “We’re moving forward on (building) the training centre. Attached to (the main) building, there will be an office building and a training centre building.

“The council before mine, five to eight years ago, looked at using the airport as an industrial site too and we still think we could do that,” he said. “The problem is that (the land) is not ours. It’s Central Elgin’s. We could charge somebody … a lease fee, but all the property tax value goes to the other municipality.” Regardless, there’s been no pressure to expand the airport.

Businesses operating at the airport include: Purple Hill Aircraft, providing maintenance and sales support for small aircraft; St. Thomas Flight Centre, offering personalized, professional flight training; and Zimmer Helicopters, offering aerial crop spraying, charter services and aircraft maintenance.

Smart AMS offers large aircraft maintenance, specializing in heavy maintenance for De Havilland Products, such as the Dash 8, Q-400, and the Canadian regional jet CRJ series 200-1000. Smart AMS’ aircraft are primarily owned by Canadian leasing companies that send aircraft abroad to use as commuter aircraft. At the end of their leases, the aircraft are returned, assessed, and overhauled to be sold or re-leased.

The airport operates 363 days a year, closing on Christmas Day and New Year’s Day, however, St. Thomas does not have a scheduled flight service. All of its flights are chartered.

St. Thomas Municipal Airport does not have an air traffic controller. It offers a Unicom service where a trained radio operator provides an airport advisory to arriving and departing traffic. The airport is classified as an uncontrolled airport and it’s the responsibility of pilots to maintain safe minimum operating separation.

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