Canadian Forces Base Portage la Prairie

Canadian Forces Base Portage la Prairie Portage la Prairie/Southport Airport
IATA: none – ICAO: none
Summary
Airport type	Military
Owner	Canadian Forces Air Command
Location	RM of Portage la Prairie, near Portage la Prairie, Manitoba
Time zone	CST (UTC−06:00)
• Summer (DST)	CDT (UTC−05:00)
Elevation AMSL	885 ft / 270 m
Coordinates	49°54′11″N 098°16′26″W / 49.90306°N 98.27389°WCoordinates: 49°54′11″N 098°16′26″W / 49.90306°N 98.27389°W
Map
CFB Portage la Prairie Location in Manitoba
Runways
Direction Length Surface ft m 01/19 3,045 928 Asphalt 08/26 2,670 810 Asphalt 13R/31L 7,000 2,134 Asphalt 13L/31R 3,130 954 Asphalt
Helipads
Number Length Surface ft m H1 150 46 Turf/Snow H2 100 31 Turf/Snow
Source: Canada Flight Supplement[1] Environment Canada[2]

Canadian Forces Base Portage la Prairie is a former military airport located adjacent to Portage la Prairie, Manitoba, Canada. Today the airport is operated as Portage la Prairie/Southport Airport.

History

Originally opened in July 1942, as No. 14 Elementary Flying Training School on 28 October 1940, a part of the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan.

The post-war expansion of the RCAF resulted in RCAF Station Portage la Prairie being re-activated on 15 September 1952. No. 2 Advanced Flying School (No. 2 AFS) was established to train RCAF and NATO pilots. Several other flight schools followed over the succeeding decades.

As a result of the unification, the station was renamed CFB Portage la Prairie in 1966.

In the late 1980s, DND budget reductions lead to the contracting out of flight training to civilian agencies. As a result, CFB Portage la Prairie closed on 1 September 1992. It reopened as Southport Aerospace where 3CFFTS continues to conduct flight training under contract with KF Aero.^[3]

References

1. Canada Flight Supplement. Effective 0901Z 15 September 2016 to 0901Z 10 November 2016
2. Synoptic/Metstat Station Information Archived December 1, 2011, at the Wayback Machine.
3. http://southport.ca/2/about-southport