The first recorded landing (on land) in Fort St. John was at what would come to be known as Pickell�s field, named after the landowner from whom the land would be eventually purchased.  In late 1932 a rescue flight piloted by Grant McConachie�the bush pilot who eventually created and led Canadian Pacific Airlines�landed to pick up a badly injured mill worker.  In March of the following year the same site was used as a stepping off point by McKenzie Air Services Ltd. to fly prospectors and their equipment into a location near Fort Nelson.

Most early air traffic through Fort St. John, however, used nearby Charlie Lake as a base for floatplanes in the summer and ski-equipped aircraft in the winter.  This United Air Transport (UAT) Fairchild FC-2W on skis typified the early lake-based air operations.

Fort  St. John

Charlie Lake wasn�t always reliable, however.  This Barkley-Grow, belonging to UAT�s successor, Yukon Southern Air Transport (YSAT), hit some soft ice while taxiing after landing in April 1939.  By the time this happened, however, YSAT had already realized that they would have to switch to wheeled operations and in 1937 secured a small grant from the province to develop an airfield at Fort St. John.  The site chosen was (then) about one mile southwest of the town and enough land purchased to accommodate a 4,000 foot long runway. 

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These Barkley-Grows and Lockheed 19-40 Loadstar aircraft were kept busy over the following years flying charters and regular mail routes from the new YSAT base.

The Pacific War brought a demand for substantial airfield development along the proposed North West Staging Route.  In early 1942 the US Army Air Corps assessed the existing facilities at Pickell�s Field as inadequate for their needs.  Construction of a new, larger airfield with two crossed 6,000 foot runways was begun directly to the east of the City and that same year began serving flights of aircraft headed north from the �lower 48�. 

RCAF terminal building at Fort St. John - 1944

Fort St. John hangar with USAAF C-47 and Taylorcraft L-2 "Grasshopper" and Stinson L-5 "Sentinal" at left of hangar

As might be expected with a sudden and substantial increase in air traffic, some visits to the new base, like that of this RCAF Dakota during the winter of 1943, were less successful than others.

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As of January 1, 1946 The USAAF transferred all facilities in Canada along the North West Staging Route to the RCAF.  Control of Fort St. John airport passed to Department of Transport in April 1951, at which time it was named as a port of entry.  In 1997 the airport was turned over to the North Peace Airport Society who contracted operations to the Vantage Airport Group.  This arrangement continues today.