Calgary International Airport
Facts on YYC
Calgary's current airport site was purchased by the city in 1938 for about $31,000, and the field was named McCall Field after Fred McCall, a First World War flying ace and lifelong Calgarian, when it opened that September.
Source: Wikipedia
Calgary takes its name from Calgary Bay on the Isle of Mull, Scotland, where a Gaelic name — Cala ghearraidh — means roughly "beach of the meadow." A local museum on Mull also notes similar Old Norse words for "cold" and "garden" as a possible root.
Source: Wikipedia
Calgary's name came by way of a Scottish bay: Colonel James Macleod, commissioner of the North-West Mounted Police, had been a frequent guest at a house near Calgary Bay on Mull. In 1876, after returning to Canada, he suggested the name for the new outpost that became Fort Calgary — and eventually gave its name to the airport.
Source: Wikipedia
Calgary city council lobbied for "international" status through the 1960s. As a compromise, the federal government renamed the facility Calgary International Airport in 1962, though it didn't receive official international designation until 1969 — and many Calgarians kept calling it McCall Field regardless.
Source: Wikipedia
Calgary International handled 19.4 million passengers and 205,086 aircraft movements in 2025, making it the busiest airport in Alberta and the fourth-busiest in Canada by both measures.
Source: Wikipedia
Calgary International serves as the headquarters and primary global hub of WestJet, and is also a focus city for Air Canada and Air North.
Source: Wikipedia
The Rutledge Hangar, a 1929 lamella-arch structure of Douglas fir planks on a reinforced concrete base, was built at Calgary's earlier Renfrew airfield and still stands; it was designated an Alberta Provincial Historic Resource in 2003.
Source: Wikipedia
Growth at Calgary International has been driven partly by the region's petroleum industry and by tourism, including its proximity to Banff National Park, alongside nonstop flights to destinations across North America, South America, Europe and Asia.
Source: Wikipedia