Canada: a hypothetical future state
848 airports assessed. 254 have no tower and meet a tier 1 to 3 rule (3 / 104 / 147). 47 towered airports fit tiers 1 to 3. A hypothetical set of 27 centres covers them. 1 public traffic source loaded.
Orange, teal, pink and grey dots are suggested tiers. Hollow rings are towered airports that fit a tier. White-ringed orange dots are hypothetical centres. Green outlined dots are remote or digital towers already listed on this site. Basemap: OpenStreetMap data via Protomaps.
What it could enable
- Service where there is none. 254 airports have no tower but meet a traffic or infrastructure rule. Remote service could give them separation or advisory service they cannot justify as a conventional tower. About 2.8 million people live within 50 km of one of them and of no towered airport.
- Fewer, shared positions. 47 towered airports fit tiers 1 to 3. Serving some of them from 27 shared centres could change how towers are staffed, equipped and replaced when they age.
- Different working pattern. A centre of about 11.1 airports lets part-time airports share a controller across the day, and lets busy periods at different airports fall on different positions.
- Awareness for isolated fields. 92 isolated airfields could get surface awareness (cameras and surveillance) without any air traffic service.
- Already moving. 1 airports here are listed on this site as remote or digital (operational, trial or planned). See them.
The gap in numbers
| Tier | No tower today | Towered today |
|---|---|---|
| Tier 1: Full remote tower service | 3 | 40 |
| Tier 2: Part-time remote tower | 104 | 7 |
| Tier 3: Remote advisory (AFIS-like) | 147 | 0 |
| Tier 4: Surface awareness only | 92 | n/a |
| Large hub, left alone | n/a | 7 |
- Traffic on gap airports
- 785 thousand passengers (2 airports with a figure), 95 thousand movements (2 airports)
- Population
- 41.3 million (World Bank 2024)
- People in cities of 15,000+
- 38.3 million
- Within 50 km of a gap airport
- 18.4 million
- ... and of no towered airport
- 2.8 million
- Near only an isolated airfield
- 36 thousand
- Airports with air-ground service already
- 0 of the gap airports have an AFIS-type frequency listed
Candidate airports
| Airport | Tier | Class | Passengers | Movements | Centre |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fredericton International Airport CYFC · Fredericton | Tier 1 | No tower, scheduled passenger service | 393,687 | 54,455 | |
| Charlottetown Airport CYYG · Charlottetown | Tier 1 | No tower, scheduled passenger service | 391,086 | n/a | |
| Montreal Mirabel International Airport CYMX · Montréal | Tier 1 | No tower, scheduled passenger service | n/a | 40,480 | |
| (Duplicate)YEG CA-1291 · Edmonton | Tier 2 | No tower, scheduled passenger service | n/a | n/a | |
| YEG CA-1292 · Edmonton | Tier 2 | No tower, scheduled passenger service | n/a | n/a | |
| Anahim Lake Airport CAJ4 · Anahim Lake | Tier 2 | No tower, scheduled passenger service | n/a | n/a | |
| Qualicum Beach Airport CAT4 · Qualicum Beach | Tier 2 | No tower, scheduled passenger service | n/a | n/a | |
| Bella Bella (Campbell Island) Airport CBBC · Bella Bella | Tier 2 | No tower, scheduled passenger service | n/a | n/a | |
| Fort Frances Municipal Airport CYAG · Fort Frances | Tier 2 | No tower, scheduled passenger service | n/a | n/a | |
| Kasabonika Airport CYAQ · Kasabonika | Tier 2 | No tower, scheduled passenger service | n/a | n/a | |
| St. Anthony Airport CYAY · St. Anthony | Tier 2 | No tower, scheduled passenger service | n/a | n/a | |
| Tofino / Long Beach Airport CYAZ · Tofino | Tier 2 | No tower, scheduled passenger service | n/a | n/a | |
| Baie-Comeau Airport CYBC · Baie-Comeau | Tier 2 | No tower, scheduled passenger service | n/a | n/a | |
| Bella Coola Airport CYBD · Bella Coola | Tier 2 | No tower, scheduled passenger service | n/a | n/a | |
| Bonnyville Airport CYBF · Bonnyville | Tier 2 | No tower, scheduled passenger service | n/a | n/a |
Hypothetical centres
| Centre site | Airports | Tier 1 / 2 / 3 | Farthest |
|---|---|---|---|
| CFB Trenton Existing staffed tower facility | 37 | 10 / 13 / 14 | 454 km |
| Kelowna International Airport Existing staffed tower facility | 26 | 8 / 14 / 4 | 497 km |
| Deer Lake Airport New site (no existing facility in range) | 46 | 3 / 11 / 32 | 489 km |
| Bathurst Airport New site (no existing facility in range) | 28 | 8 / 14 / 6 | 500 km |
| Fort McMurray International Airport Existing staffed tower facility | 18 | 3 / 13 / 2 | 463 km |
| Goose Bay Airport Existing staffed tower facility | 23 | 1 / 5 / 17 | 448 km |
| Moose Jaw Air Vice Marshal C. M. McEwen Airport Existing staffed tower facility | 8 | 3 / 4 / 1 | 402 km |
| Prince George (International) Airport Existing staffed tower facility | 14 | 0 / 8 / 6 | 478 km |
| Sault Ste Marie Airport Existing staffed tower facility | 7 | 3 / 3 / 1 | 484 km |
| Yellowknife International Airport Existing staffed tower facility | 7 | 1 / 2 / 4 | 362 km |
| Gander International Airport Existing staffed tower facility | 3 | 2 / 1 / 0 | 208 km |
| Whitehorse / Erik Nielsen International Airport Existing staffed tower facility | 4 | 1 / 2 / 1 | 426 km |
| Quebec Jean Lesage International Airport Existing staffed tower facility | 2 | 0 / 1 / 1 | 404 km |
| Windsor International Airport Existing staffed tower facility | 1 | 0 / 0 / 1 | 60 km |
| Attawapiskat Airport New site (no existing facility in range) | 15 | 0 / 3 / 12 | 482 km |
| Kangiqsujuaq (Wakeham Bay) Airport New site (no existing facility in range) | 15 | 0 / 3 / 12 | 486 km |
| Saskatoon John G. Diefenbaker International Airport Existing staffed tower facility | 1 | 0 / 0 / 1 | 434 km |
| Paulatuk (Nora Aliqatchialuk Ruben) Airport New site (no existing facility in range) | 12 | 0 / 2 / 10 | 499 km |
| Rankin Inlet Airport New site (no existing facility in range) | 8 | 0 / 4 / 4 | 498 km |
| Brochet Airport New site (no existing facility in range) | 7 | 0 / 1 / 6 | 239 km |
| Taloyoak Airport New site (no existing facility in range) | 7 | 0 / 2 / 5 | 494 km |
| Masset Airport New site (no existing facility in range) | 3 | 0 / 3 / 0 | 113 km |
| Fort Nelson Airport New site (no existing facility in range) | 1 | 0 / 1 / 0 | 0 km |
| Grise Fiord Airport New site (no existing facility in range) | 3 | 0 / 1 / 2 | 440 km |
| Qikiqtarjuaq Airport New site (no existing facility in range) | 3 | 0 / 0 / 3 | 372 km |
| Umiujaq Airport New site (no existing facility in range) | 1 | 0 / 0 / 1 | 0 km |
| Old Crow Airport New site (no existing facility in range) | 1 | 0 / 0 / 1 | 0 km |
Responsible implementation
A tier on this page is a starting question. These are the topics any real plan would need to answer. Public guidance:
- EASA ED Decision 2023/005/R, guidance material on remote aerodrome air traffic services
- UK CAA: remote aerodrome air traffic services (CAP 670 and approval policy)
- EUROCAE ED-240A, minimum performance standards for remote tower optical systems
- FAA Digital Tower Systems page
- FAA AIP Program Guidance Letter 26-06 (design approval is not operational approval)
- ICAO Doc 4444, PANS-ATM, the procedures that remote services must still meet
Safety case and regulator approval
Each service needs its own safety case and approval before it carries traffic. A design approval for equipment is a different step from permission to run a service. The regulator named in this site's records for Canada: Transport Canada.
Controller workforce and training
Remote work changes the job: new displays, new failure modes, and new competence checks. A plan would cover who moves, who trains, how existing controllers choose, and what happens to current staff and their conditions.
Communications and surveillance
Radio, video and surveillance links must meet the latency and quality the safety case assumes. Tier 1 and 2 airports need reliable cameras, redundant links and a surveillance picture for traffic that radar or ADS-B cannot see from the ground.
Contingency and redundancy
Every centre needs a fallback: a second path for data, a backup position, and a rule for what the airport does when a link fails (hold, divert, revert to advisory). Centres that serve many airports need a plan for losing all of them at once.
Cybersecurity
A centre is a single high-value target. It needs the same protections as other air traffic systems: segmented networks, supply-chain checks, logging, and tested recovery.
Community and labour engagement
Airports, airlines, pilots, unions, local governments and neighbours should be in the process before decisions, not after. Jobs can move away from small airports, and that is a real cost to a community.
Sources
- OurAirports: airports, runways, frequencies.
- GeoNames cities of 15,000 or more; World Bank population.
- Passenger and aircraft movement rankings (Statistics Canada, NAV CANADA) as compiled on Wikipedia (top 27 by passengers, top 42 by movements)
Towers already listed for Canada: remote and digital sites in Canada.