Gander Airport Terminal Information

Gander airport’s most used topic recently has been about the proposed replacement of the present terminal. In particular, the artistic design of the building. CBC News has recently presented a very fine video showing these items with commentary from Alan Elder, a curator for the Canadian Museum of History in Gatineau, about the historical and artistic significance of the Gander Airport terminal. One thing to take note during the video is that this building, constructed in the mid 1950's, was the first of it’s kind in Canada and was used as a model for other terminals across the country.

Online Petition To Preserve Gander Terminal

Since our last post with reference to the Gander Terminal, it has come to our attention that an online petition has been put in place to ask for provincial and federal support in preserving this building for it’s historical value. The petition is poorly written in that it stipulates the airport itself is up for grabs and not specifically the terminal. Other than this minor detail, we agree whole heartily in seeking this support. We also agree that the GIAA has the right to manage it’s finances prudently and do what is best for the survival of the airport itself. We are confident that the GIAA has every intention in preserving the artifacts from the present building. The problem we face now is whether or not there is enough support out there to come up with a solution that will satisfy everyone.

Gander Airport To Get Their Fourth Terminal

The Gander International Airport Authority is considering building a smaller airport terminal building to replace the present one for financial reasons. A news item has been released by the CBC news explaining the situation. The question is not should be it be replaced but what to do with the present terminal? Hopefully this will be answered with open minds and common sense. We are confident this will be resolved with some good discussion.

Down Homer article

We recently have learned that the monthly magazine publication of Down Homer has contacted us for more information on Ms. Alena Zimova’s planned visit to Gander to tour the original crash scene of Czechoslovakian flight 523. The Down Homer will be doing a feature article about this accident featuring Ms. Zimova who was one of the survivors on that fateful flight.This visit is certainly generating a lot of interest about the aircraft accident that occurred some 47 years ago. So much, in fact, we decided that our website should document some of the history behind this tragedy. We have since added a new section in the Transition era for your viewing. We will be providing more documented information to this section in the near future.

The Old Canadian Side

We have just received a request for information whether they could visit an area in Gander where their grandfather once lived. He was a doctor in the RCAF and served in Gander at the military hospital during 1944-45. Letters he had written to his wife during this period depicts a very interesting way of life during this period. After viewing these old letters the grand children now would like to visit this area and walk the same streets as their grandfather. We have informed them that the streets are still intact for walking but unless they were familiar with the area it may be difficult in locating particular areas that would interest them. This is unfortunate because there are no guided tours available. A few years ago this area was refurbished somewhat with street and building signs posted that would make a visit of more value but now is in a state of disrepair. This makes our project to construct a table model of the old airport town all that more important.