Newfoundland - Gander International Airport

J and I made the kids listen to the radio instead of watch television this Saturday morning.  (The horror!)

Of course, we listened to CBC Radio 2, our favourite Canadian radio station.  The program was the Vinyl Cafe, and it was featuring a lovely program on the Gander International Airport in Newfoundland.

Do you know where Newfoundland and Labrador are? 

To summarize the program, Gander used to serve 150 international flights as a refueling stop before or after the atlantic crossing, and was the busiest airport in the world. Obviously, air travel has changed, and now they get about 11 international flights a month, and about 5 scheduled flight a day.

The program was notable for two things.

One is the lounge. Link to this page to view pictures of the amazing, modernist, beautiful lounge.

The other interesting reminder was that around 40 flights landed at Gander on September 11.  Since it is an extraordinarily small airport, Newfies took in passengers like family for the several days they were stranded in Newfoundland and Labrador.

J met some residents returning to Gander on a flight and asked them about this.  While they lived about an hour away from the airport, the Newfies said that many of these families still return for vacations every summer, and since tourism is a major industry in the area, there has been a significant increase in traffic since September 11 thanks to the generosity of the residents.  Lifelong relationships were formed in those few days.

You can watch a video on GMA about it here: