Four Point Two Stars Where You Only Stop If You Have To
I always look up airports when I’m writing about them, partly out of habit and partly because I’m afraid I’ll miss an important detail. When I was writing Any Landing You Can Float Away From I looked at the Google Maps entry for Goose Bay, just scouting around for information.
What I didn’t expect to find was that Goose Bay Airport has 127 reviews, with an average rating of four-point-two stars.
Who reviews an airport in the middle of nowhere?
Marilyn is the most recent, with an unhappy three stars.
I take no pleasure in doing this however, it needs to be done. I’m not sure if this is the only airport that’s this strict concerning passengers bringing their own water through security and I say this with great displeasure and disappointment.
Nick offers five stars but his review is a bit lukewarm.
As good of an airport as you would expect in a small town. Place is very clean, and workers are very polite. Just there is not much to do other than getting on the plane.
To be fair, there is not, in fact, very much to do there.
To understand why Goose Bay Airport exists at all, we have to go back to World War II.
The US and Canada needed to get short-range aircraft to Europe to support combat operations, which at the time could only be done by cargo ship.
British military aircraft purchased in North America were flown to Nova Scotia and Newfoundland, disassembled, shipped across the Atlantic, and reassembled in England.
The solution: build a series of airfields as stepping stones for refuelling.
The British built an airfield in Reykjavik, Iceland within range of Ireland and southwest England. However, the gap from Newfoundland to Iceland was still too large, so the US Army started improving existing British airstrips in Greenland and Canada began the development of a new airfield in Labrador.
Eric Fry led the survey team that selected the new site in Labrador, at the western end of Terrington Basin, about five miles from the narrows between the basin and Goose Bay. He suggested calling it Goose Bay Airport, in line with RCAF Gander in Newfoundland.
The North Atlantic ferry route was inaugurated in 1942. Large numbers of aircraft began flying to Europe, starting at Stephenville Air Base or RCAF Station Gander in Newfoundland, with stops at RCAF Station Goose Bay (Labrador), Bluie West 1 (Narsarsuaq, Greenland), and Reykjavik (Iceland).
The point is that Goose Bay Airport specifically exists for aircraft that can’t make it on their own.
Enna’s review shows relatively low expectations for an airport, and Goose Bay passes with five stars.
The landing strip we sat on was flat and clean. The sunset was lovely.
That wasn’t the experience for everyone.
It was a rough flight along the North Atlantic Ferry Route. The cockpits weren’t manned by experienced ferry pilots but by newly trained military recruits who would be flying the aircraft into battle.
долго думал (roughly ‘thought for a long time’) took one star away for the pilot, which seems a bit unfair:
so, guys, i was here in 09’s when i flew from my little podunk city causeni, canada, but in the moment i remember i can’t breathe, ’cause the pilot blocked my access to oxygen – minus one star for this situation, and my appreciate for the hot stewardess susie q for good sandwiches
By 1942, RCAF Goose Bay was “bustling” with aircraft on their way to support the Allies in World War II. Commercial flights started in 1950, when Trans-Canada Air Lines included Goose Bay in their round trip transatlantic service.
Bruce appears to have been a child on a military transport. He remembers the airport as still “bustling” in 1962.
i was here in ’62 back when it was a bustling place. flying from mcguire afb to rhein main ab. landed here about 2 am for fuel before jumping across the pond. lost my little sister in the terminal but we found her after awhile. mom herding 4 children across the globe on another adventure. 4 inches of snow on the tarmac as we trudged back to the plane and still snowing as the landing gear slowly retracted into the belly. i fell asleep thinking of goose bay, never to return.
ANG F-84Fs at Goose Bay during 1961 Berlin crisis, courtesy of the US Air Force.
Meanwhile, in 2022, T is less impressed with the children.
Might I suggest a chalk board instead of a piano to occupy kids???
Today, Air Borealis, Air Canada Express and PAL Airlines all offer commercial flights from Goose Bay.
Cheyla gives five stars, although there’s still not a lot happening at Goose Bay.
Small but nice little airport. There is a little cafe there for food. There’s also a couple car rental companies located inside. We landed around 11:30 pm and security was nice enough to call us a cab. Be aware there are only 3 cab cars in Goose Bay, so you may have to wait a bit for a cab 🤣
Johan doesn’t seem to believe in the three cabs and gives Goose Bay one star.
Worse place to fly in. Got no real taxi service. People standing in line waiting for a taxi that will never come.
I was surprised to discover that most commercial airliners that land in the airport are not scheduled and never intended to stop in Goose Bay.
JK shows gratitude for this with five stars.
Major thanks to Goose Bay and its people for helping flight DL0245 last night. Your kindness made a terrible situation so much better. Lovely local lady named Clarizz even shared her gravy fries. ❤️
Of course, I had to find out what happened. Flight DL0245 was a scheduled passenger flight from Catania, Italy to JFK in New York.
The aircraft operating the flight was a 767-300 registered in the US as N1200K. It also has comments.
Quite an old bird: first flight 22/03/1998…
28 years old this year. That’s nothing. Delta will likely fly her another 5 years or so before retirement, especially with the delays in delivery of wide bodies.
They were cruising at FL380 (~38,000 feet) over the Labrador Sea when one of the cabin crew reported a burning electrical smell in the aft cabin. The flight crew diverted to Goose Bay and landed safely about forty minutes later.
Maintenance inspected the aircraft and replaced two of the galley ovens. Neither AVHerald nor JK mention what happened to the passengers after sharing Clarizz’s gravy fries, but the 767 repositioned to JFK the following day.
It’s still flying. In fact, right at this moment, the 767 is flying passengers from San Francisco to New York and expected to land at JFK eleven minutes early.
A famous diversion later made into a film was Uzbekistan Airlines flight HY101, which was flying to New York City on the 11th of September 2001. The passengers and crew were quietly cruising towards their destination when the 9/11 attacks took place. Initially, the captain was told to divert to Boston. Shortly afterward, presumably as US airspace closed completely, the airline dispatcher told the flight crew that they needed instead to divert to Gander International Airport.
None of this explains why Goose Bay has three reviews referencing the event.
Thank you for this airport! Because on September 11, 2001, they helped the Uzbek passenger plane.
The airport received two five-star and one one-star rating, making for an average of three stars.
Tough crowd.
Goose Bay Airport is doing what it was built to do: catching aircraft that need it. I guess 4.2 stars isn’t terrible.
But if any of you find yourself there, please, do me a favour: leave a review.
Small airports are their own experience.
I still remember flying a Piedmont prop airliner into the Asheville airport in ’82. Google says it’s had something like 4 makeovers since then, but back then it had 3 gates and the runway was mainly a paved slice of the mountainside.
I watched most, if not all, of the airport employees including the gate clerk wrestle the air-stairs up to the plane. I remember gate 3 having the roped-off look of something that was never used.
The clerk very patiently explained procedures to a bewildered 16yo who was by himself and on his first flight. I had already missed one flight due to not even knowing what a gate was. I would have given them 5 stars in an instant if the internet had existed.
The place is unrecognizable now on their website.
“right at this moment” – I work at Cape Canaveral and my job is basically “computers” but things like flightradar24 still make me stop for a second and feel a little bit of wonder about it all.
I love this story. I bet they loved you :D
Hi Sylvia,
Great to see you are getting back into the swing, your writing style always takes the right tone. Serious when needed and also wry with articles like this.
For me Goose Bay always evokes an image from the classic spoof movie Airplane when they call for ‘more lights’ on the foggy runway and the airport fireman and his hound staring balefully into the sky!
The closest I have come to an ‘International’ airport having that homely hicksville feel is Coventry in the UK.
Monarch ran scheduled services from there in the 1990-2000s. This was pre liquids and heavy security and if we were flying we could bank on 45 minutes from our front door in Northampton to check in (via the M6 UK’s sleepiest motorway).
The guy who took your car park money, also manhandled your luggage at the desk and I am sure also helped in the restaurant – speciality huge bacon sandwiches! The restaurant/departure lounge was a tiny noisy Portakabin affair which got a bit crowded when the few flights stacked up but it was a jolly place to start a holiday. I took the dog to greet my wife coming back from somewhere and she got off the plane and walked the short distance from the steps to see us through the single chain link fence!
How different from today’s tortuous experience of flying?
I can’t tell you how jealous I am that I don’t get to try those bacon butties. Times sure have changed when it comes to small airports.
Hi,
Since you wonder about the connection between Goose Bay and 9/11:
Dozens of planes had to be rerouted on 9/11, and every airport in Atlantic Canada received some. Gander took the most and is the most famous as a result but the airports in Goose Bay, Halifax, Moncton, St John’s, and Stevenville all took multiple planes in as well.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Yellow_Ribbon
Thanks for writing about the history of my little town!
Thanks! I should have written more about Goose Bay’s support during that time; I was just too bemused by multiple people commenting on the Gander diversion! Thanks for reading!