PHOTOS: Weekend at the Chilliwack Airport

All photos by Grace Kennedy

Municipal airports aren’t typically busy places, but a region-wide disaster isn’t exactly typical.

The last week has seen a 1,300% increase in the number of flights landing at Chilliwack Airport, compared to 2019. (The airport usually has 60,000 arrivals and departures over the course of a year, 70% of which is small regional flights or pilot training.) Other municipal airports have also seen a massive increase in use, with the FVRD Regional Airpark in Hope asking for donations to upgrade the facility in the future.

Over the weekend, helicopters and small aircraft flew into and out of the airspace to fuel up, deliver packages, and transport people around the region. First responders were stationed on the ground, waiting for a BC Ambulance flight to land. Canadian Armed Forces members checked over their helicopter before flying over Chilliwack on their way west.

All this action drew residents out to watch.

In the course of two hours on Saturday afternoon, the Chilliwack Airport parking lot hosted a couple on their anniversary, a former Ontario man who had just moved to the area, a van full of kids, an elderly man and woman watching planes from their car, airport staff in high-visibility vests, a man walking his dog, this reporter and her toddler, and at least four other passersby.

This is what they saw.