Why Does Calgary Have FOUR Runways?

As Canada's fourth busiest airport in 2019, YYC served nearly 18 million passengers! It has four runways - 35L/17R, 35R/17L, 08/26, and 11/29.
At the number four spot though, why does Calgary have more runways than two of Canada’s busier airports?
All aerial images and footage seen in this video were taken from a helicopter, with thanks to the fine folks at Mountain View Helicopters (www.mvheli.com).
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SOURCES:
Airport Statistics:
cdn.torontopea... (YYZ)
www.yvr.ca/-/m... (YVR)
www.admtl.com/... (YUL)
www.yyc.com/en... (YYC)
YYC Runway Usage Statistics: www.yyc.com/en...
www.yyc.com/Po...
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Outro song - "Take Flight" by Nyhtian: • Nyhtian - Take Flight ...
© Alex Praglowski Aviation 2021
This video is the property of Alex Praglowski Aviation and may not be used for any purpose without prior permission. Contact me at the email in the "About" section of my channel for usage.

[@_mnejing]

As someone who lives in Calgary, I can confirm that, yes, we do have wind.

[@daniyalkhizar]

there used to be a lot of wind but because of climate change, wind is rare now

[@lolup9]

@@daniyalkhizar we still occasionally get gusts of 70km/h+ dont we?

[@daniyalkhizar]

@@lolup9 yeah

[@BloxikGames]

Yeh, before covid, there were planes taking off everyone 30 seconds but now with covid, there are hardly any.

[@cpscdave]

Calgary is so windy cause Saskatchewan sucks and BC Blows! :D

[@OneDullMan]

Fun obscure and personal fact. When YYC was opening 35R / 17L in 2014, YYC they hosted a weekend where the public could run or walk the runway. I signed up and got to run up and down the runway with a few hundred other people. It was great and started me off on running marathons. And its not the first runway I've had the pleasure to run on

[@lancehughes8620]

I have lived in Calgary my whole life. I didnt know about any of this. Very informative. I will appreciate it more when I fly in and out of Calgary now.

[@TheBrownSheepOnYT]

I live in Calgary. And I can agree with you

[@natashabrubaker91]

I also lived in Calgary for 12 years now and have only been in my new location for 1-2 months of 2022

[@tgreyfox]

Calgary's the only place I've ever been aboard for a go-around, trying to land on one of the parallel runways with heavy crosswinds and the pilot decided maybe they'd give it another try. Interesting video, thanks for the info!

[@capnrico8877]

Back in the very late 1990s or early 2000s I was hanging out listening to my scanner while watching planes take off and land at YYC. An Air Canada 767 arriving from the East asked if they could do the approach for runway 25 (way back before 25 became 26). Closer in the tower asked when they wanted to break off for 28 (simultaneous intersecting runway operations “SIRO” were on 28 and 34 at the time). The Captain asked if they could land 25 to give his new First Officer some experience on a shorter, narrower runway. Traffic was light at the time, and the tower cleared them for 25. They landed, and if I remember correctly they turned off on 34 and then onto taxiway Charlie. Not sure how many (or probably more accurately “how few”) times a 767 has landed 25, but I think the new FO proved his 3 stripes and earned a bit of respect that day! This is a true no BS story, and I was very surprised to hear a 767 request and actually land on 25 (so much so that I still remember it 20+ years later). My guess is a very experienced senior captain, and lightly loaded 767 so braking wouldn’t be an issue. I’d also call him a great “teaching” captain for giving a new FO such a rare experience!

[@skarabraeranch2093]

At an earlier juncture of my career I was flying on AC (sometimes twice weekly) between YYC and YVR … and would occasionally land on 29/11 from west to east … given the prevailing westerly flow, a very rare occurrence.

[@Edmonchuck]

Until the parallel was built, RWY 28 (now 29) was actually quite busy. Ops would use it to assist in taxi times as well given the length up to 34 (now 35L). Flow was also instituted as a typical 34 arrival would have hold short instructions for it as 28 was in use.

[@ghostrider-be9ek]

last weekend, I saw a bunch of AC mainline Embrarers landing on 29. Winds were direct from the west at a steady 20-30 kts. They switched to the parallels towards the evening as the winds subsiused.

[@amyyorke2731]

YYC to YVR is an amazing flight to take. The rockies always look so picturesque, can never take my eyes off them.

[@hogey74]

Whoa. Hello from Jan 2023. Brisbane had 23M in 2019 using just a main runway plus a small cross-wind one at time. Then they shut the little one to become a taxi way while building a second parallel main runway. It was apparently the busiest single-runway airfield in the world and seeing your vid today, I believe it!

[@happycanayjian1582]

Yes, a parallel was long overdue at BNE. The distinction of busiest “pure” single runway airport has probably been San Diego for the past 20 years or more, and that’s including a nightly 7 hour noise curfew. Either way, I miss the days of nearly 300k aircraft movements on Calgary’s crossing runways. Ahh, the good ol’ days.

[@lynn2551]

A someone who lived near the airport for over a decade, it indeed gets windy. I could sometimes tell the wind direction by how many flights went over the house.

[@ropshubop]

Interesting content. I’d love to learn more about Canada’s airports from your channel!

[@KaratedudeYT]

Always love these little tidbits about YYC. Thanks for the video as always!

[@TriXtanGaming]

It's always cool seeing videos about my home town! That was great to learn, thanks for the video!

[@derrickstableford8152]

The north touchdown zone on 17L/35R is also on top of the airport trail tunnel, which I helped designed the controls for. Whilst also being involved in the install of the electrical for 17L/35R. I had many happy days running from the tunnel, to the runway project. There is also a couple of tunnels under the taxiways R and J.

[@andrewriedel4446]

Good video, Rwy 29 has also been used in the past for night operations to reduce noise along the approach paths for 35L and 35R.

[@jdniedner]

And crosswind landings are kinds scarry. But I feel the worst ones I've had were in Denver rather than YYC. I've just found this channel, very nice!

[@ianpotter2128]

Did you know that when the army had a base in Calgary, they use to have one of the shorter runways ( can't remember which one) as their helicopter landing pad. It was used for troop and equipment movements and this way the army did not interfere with regular operations.

[@trevormctavish845]

Before the new north-south runway opened, 26/08 (then 25/07) was quite active with most of its traffic being smaller aircraft types. Until around 2010 there were still two flying schools operating out of YYC, making 25/07 the preferred runway for this traffic whenever possible. The largest aircraft I've personally witnessed landing on 25/07 was a 737. Others have told me about DC-8 and DC-9s in the 1970s and 80s.

[@fly4fun07]

I witnessed a CargoJet B757 land on 26 during very strong winds (after an overshoot on 35R)! Taxied north on Alpha.

[@225degrees]

@@fly4fun07 True..

[@ErikPaquette]

i used to fly that king air pictured landing on 26 (GSIA), we would always opt for that runway if we could as it gave us a MUCH shorter taxi to the general aviation side of things. especially when doing medevac flights.

[@LethinGabbins]

I always thought it was because they needed the long runway for heavies taking off at 3500ft on the ground. In hot weather this would be a serious problem when calculating density altitude for heavies. Where flying a fully loaded 777 in 25c handles like it's at 5000ft, means you need a fast and the furious length runway to get off the ground.

[@SG-738]

Love the fast and furious reference. That scene killed me…who signed off on that? Unbelievable, even in an unbelievable movie

[@SpykersB]

Yeah me too. And you are right! I remembering getting flyer like stuff in the mail notifying us residence that airplanes will soon be flying over us because of a proposed runway, and one of the reasons given (as I can’t recall all that was written) but do remember in fact a reason given was to allow heavier planes to now arrive at our airport. 100% positive about that! because I wondered how low these monster planes would be flying over our heads, and for someone who’s watched every ‘Mayday’ episode at least twice, a small fear factor entered my head, like the plane not making it to the runway. Memory stays intact when it associates itself to a fear, whether rational or not, lol. 🍻

[@RobDucharme]

Haha, the F&F reference is gold.

[@forgottenfamily]

That's the reason why the N/S runways are some of the longest runways in Canada and why, when they decided the most logical approach to expand capacity was to twin a runway, they went with another long N/S runway. But the question was "why are there 4 runways" and that is specifically because of the severe crosswind issues from Chinooks necessitating two secondary runways.

[@SpykersB]

@@forgottenfamily guess you didn’t get the flyers that you’ll be under the new fly plan path.

[@iFailGames]

I am now a runway/aviation expert. Thank you, Alex.

[@stephenbonin3049]

Wow very high quality content on this channel!!

[@steves835]

And now I know. I didn't know I wanted to know before this video, but now that I've watched it, I realized that I didn't want to know in the first place. Great video 👍

[@brianboswick3756]

I really appreciate the information that you are able to provide. Although few, the most interesting, to me, are the more northerly routes and charter flights for employees and employers. Bloodvein and Norway House in Manitoba come to mind not to mention Pickle Lake in Ontario. Thanks again for the knowledge that you provide.

[@hakeemt929]

Before they built the new long runway, the approach to the airport was very easy through Barlow Trail. Now you have to take a much longer route.

[@UrvashisKitchen3]

Awesome video and great information shared 👌🏻👍🏻💕🙏🏻

[@JayJayAviation]

11 has been seeing a lot of action in September and October this year

[@MrZics]

YYC has 3 runways now. As of October 3, 2024 runway 08/26 (The smallest runway) was redesignated as Taxiway Lima.

[@Oldpucker]

Landed there once being able to see the runway coming, from a seat in the back of the plane. They pulled it off, but it was super sketchy. At the last moment the plane whipped and the tires caught the asphalt. Perfect landing. Everyone just looked at each other all shocked and collectively let out a sigh of relief and smiled. It was wild.

[@jeckyyeung5072]

Very interesting information which I never knew, thanks Alex!!

[@ndenise3460]

Because we used to use a lot of taildraggers. The fourth one was only built recently to increase traffic for airliners

[@GoldenMinotaur]

Well, I was partly right, I figured the large volume of regional traffic played a role, but didn't realize the Chinook were a big factor. That being said, it's very much like Calgary, and Alberta in general to overbuild to serve the oilfield and leave room for future expansion

[@disconnected2043]

Great info about 2021, I remember that period of time; super noisy air traffic for about a week.

[@StewartMidwinter]

I'll bet I'm the only pilot to ever have. Take an off on three runways consecutively while departing the airport. Flying a borro5 ultralight aircraft which had been on display at the museum. I started on runway 36 but lost power Right after lift off and touch down again. I ascertained that spark plug cable was loose and applied pressure, then took off again and turned east over runway 25. Then lost power again! Landed once more, in the grass between runways, and applied more pressure, and this time there was a pronounced click indicating better connection. One more time I requested permission from the tower to take off, and heard laughing in the background. No doubt! This time I took off on runway 28 and departed the area with my tail between my legs.

[@ghostrider-be9ek]

I've departed off of 26 in a Cessna 185. Great for windy days from mountains.

[@phillip1115]

A bit bumpy? I flew into Calgary many times and I never once found it a "bit" bumpy. Scariest landings I ever experienced were in Calgary. In the early days I used to ride the "White Knuckler" out of Edmonton Industrial, a DC6. A mechanic with a long ladder and 5 gals of oil would often meet the plane as we shut down on the ramp. Ah, the good days.

[@JesusFriedChrist]

I’ve landed on 26, flying home after visiting family, from YXC to YYC. Tiny little 8 passenger plane, so small that there was no partition between the cockpit and the cabin.

[@radiohead2206]

Thanks for the great Video. Any chance you are the Voice of Ernie on Sesame Street?

[@growlusnotneeded3251]

Wind direction, and if it has high volume, one for takeoff and one for landing. Try manage an airport where you have 30 planes wanting to take off and 30 planes wanting to land.

[@wolfgangbing2497]

Thank you for Sharing this interesting Video!

[@sarahpatton4256]

Hey I was plane watching last nite and saw something I've never seen before. The crosswinds run way was being used in the opposite direction. Usually the approach is over Chestermere to land but they were taking off towards Chestermere. Has anyone else ever noticed this one? In 5 years of plane watching, this I haven't seen

[@joevermeulen8324]

Another factor with 26 is the terrain on the other side of the runway. That precludes a lot of takeoffs and landings because of terrain clearance for departure or missed approach.

[@225degrees]

Wrong.

[@airline.pictures]

Cool video! Super informational!

[@ph11p3540]

I wonder if those chinooks are the reason why Dehavaland field near Strathmore 30 min east of Calgary is looked at as a new big airport

[@RobDucharme]

This video was not so randomly sitting in my suggested watches (I follow 74Gear, Mentour and Maximus). What made me click though, was me asking, "Ok, why DOES Calgary have four? Is that a lot?" lol. I live in Red Deer so I've flown out of Calgary a few times..

[@scarywinja]

Wow I live in Calgary and had no clue about us being the 4st busiest

[@dilyo624]

I flew out of Calgary on 29/11 on my flight to Kitchener back in October.

[@ShaneBro]

I have taken off on the west/east runway. Did a discovery flight back many years ago.

[@oh8wingman]

I have taken off and landed at Calgary International dozens of times on business and on more than one occasion I would swear that we were crabbing at 45 degrees when landing or immediately crabbing after take off. It's un-nerving looking out a window on the starboard side of the aircraft when landing and you seem to be flying sideways before you get on the ground. When the starboard landing gear touches down a second before the left the airframe straightens out and then the nose wheel makes contact and you breathe a small sigh of relief. The same thing is true on takeoff when it appears you are turning to the west but you keep going straight north until you gain some altitude. So now lets talk about how poorly Calgary drivers deal with snow and ice on the roadways..............

[@icebergpreservation5164]

3:17 I've been on that exact Canadian North 737

[@alexc8092]

Same

[@chrislewis4606]

Random and interesting. Just how I like it. Thanks!

[@jessemillington5988]

That was cool learned a bunch!

[@jasonhenn7345]

I believe yyc is an alternate landing site for the space shuttle

[@Dinoman97]

Last year in the winter I had a flight that had a layover in Calgary Mann the winds can be scary

[@vernonlemoignan1392]

Very interesting. My information states that the emergency shuttle runway was the 14000 foot CFB Namao runway in Edmonton. Was it maybe switched after 1994 when the airforce in Edmonton was disbanded?

[@xairman565]

The main runway was used by the army after they took over Namao. It couldn’t be used as a runway after that. It’s also why any troop movements usually happen through the airport at Nisku, south of Edmonton.

[@rascallygoose4926]

When I left Calgary in August, I was confused because I took runway 29, threw me off as I was unaware a 787 could use it

[@LudicrousGotRizz]

Same! Many years ago an AC 787-8 to FRA

[@LudicrousGotRizz]

The Dreamliner's wings generate a good amount of lift

[@MrSunrise-]

A strong headwind makes a big difference on takeoff, and if they were operating on 29 it must have been seriously strong.

[@atomic32205489]

If the prevailing winds are from the West, why didn't they build the parallel runways in an East/West config way back in the early days of the founding of the airport?

[@avinavbhandari3438]

As far as I know, winds from the north and south (especially the north) are as common if not more. Its just especially in the winter the we get the chinook winds from the west where runway 29 is used very often, almost exclusively if traffic is light. Winds from the east are extremely rare.

[@justinkingtut]

I built the security fence around that new run way. It was not a fun as it looked.

[@manandmachineX411]

3:16 Been on that plane many, many times.

[@lburton874]

Calgary has 4 runways as the runways were added as needed as the airport grew and old runways were decommissioned. At one point the main terminal was on the far south of the airport. You can still see remnants of the old runways in Satellite images. The 2 smallest runways are predate the jet age…. The current runways may be used do to crosswinds but are more reflective of history then anything else.

[@AnCanadian]

one of those two long runways are used for the Antonov we get regular visits from it here because when I was in soccer camp one time it flew over us and we're basically on fucked side of winter we got basically like - 40 That's the highest we got this winter in December from thos Arctic winds and yes I can confirm we do have wind and it's shit kind On some days it cannot be windy but on other days you could just be blown over as soon as you exit we get really high winds a storm is near

[@amazeddude1780]

I heard that they are there for aircraft to take off and land.

[@cmcalgary]

that was super interesting

[@waynegabler6570]

Is, 'The wind can blow hard from any of the 4 main directions, sometimes within the same day.' been suggested yet?

[@Ea-Nasir_Copper_Co]

I remember about three instances of an east wind in Calgary...in my 40 years of living there.

[@ianschiller9612]

Learn something new every video

[@x01macmilsim86]

08/26 is shorter than YQFs 17/35, is it really a runway?

[@Edmonchuck]

YXD's were shorter, and yet handled our volume at the time, including L100"s.

[@kevijiinsupportofukraine6673]

Love flying me drone around Calgary downtown. What drone did you use to shoot this? Asking because we can’t fly our drone close to airports. Just wondering how you did that.

[@davidreibelt2704]

ha ha Not Remotely to Scale - love it. and the info!

[@robertgodwin3506]

You should make a video about YVR’s runway 13/31

[@auroran0]

Fun fact, earlier plans had a parallel for 29/11 but that requirement was dropped.

[@aamirgujjar5191]

Back in days I flew from Calgary to London. 😆

[@rizon72]

I guess I'm curious, if so much wind comes from the west, why make the two longest runways north/south?

[@kurohone]

I've never understood the decision to build YYC's main runway N/S. It's not like the chinooks weren't know about, and the prevailing winds in AB are W-E most of the time in any case.

[@happycanayjian1582]

Given the fact that the parallels are suitable >95% of the time, I’d say they got it right.

[@marsgal42]

By the time they needed to build longer runways there was too much development around the airport for anything but north-south runways.

[@dallaswoiken7533]

We are also one of the emergency landing spots for the space shuttles.

[@forgottenfamily]

*were. Space Shuttle program is defunct but the long runways made it a good emergency option for them while the program was active

[@natashabrubaker91]

Same bro I also live in Calgary

[@antoniodacosta3358]

Oh by the way Jazz Dash8 - 300 are still flying YUL-YQB so ur flight from Timmons airport maybe last for that one besides not origin AC

[@peterjeffery8495]

Thanks for this info. The next time I'm on approach into Cal-gree I can nudge my (please airplane GODS!) good looking lady seat mate and go into the full Cliff Claven mode. Nudge-nudge.."Ya know most people don't know this but this airport has 2 auxiliary runways...I bet you don't know why..." Yes if you listen carefully you can hear the sound of her eyes rolling back in her head over the noise made by the landing gear being lowered". Verdict on this video: NEAT!

[@stanleovart]

Alex, i like such your informative videos about Canadian sites and infrastructure and air companies. Also mention you from time to time in Russian aviation fans society :)))

[@AlexPraglowskiAviation]

Thank you very much!!

[@chrisreid3155]

So it’s because of wind then. Don’t need to watch a 5 minute video to answer the posted question

[@nextbot_478c2]

I’m just happy he says “Calgary” correctly Edit: Alex is from calgary

[@ontarioman100]

i thought it was for the space shuttle to land if need be back in the day!

[@cwisp2840]

YYC is such a great airport code that most people use it in their usernames

[@davidbrown3971]

I've heard that calgary is the third busiest airport ahead of Montreal.

[@lzh4950]

Meanwhile DXB, HKG & SIN managed to handle more than 3x the no. of passengers (before the pandemic) with 1/2 the no. of runways

[@JeepsCafe]

Multiple runways for different wind directions

[@afthoniaaftarkis4007]

Can anyone see 6 potential runways in the dp?

[@12345tobin6789]

Damn GSIA. Depending on what day may have been me.

[@NoScratchLifestyle]

35L/17R, 35R/17L, 08/26, and 11/29. What do these numbers mean?

[@lorinhardy8920]

The numbers represent compass headings, the direction the plane is pointing when on or lined up with that runway. Each runway has two numbers, one for this way and the other for the opposite way. When coming in from the south you might land on 35L on a heading of 350 degrees. Coming in to the same runway from the north end would be on 17R on a heading of 170 degrees. Parallel runways need to use the same numbers (same headings) so they are designated Left and Right to differentiate.

[@gs98999]

Any favourite spots for spotting now with the runway in place?

[@jacob476]

To prevent us from having the same problem that Heathrow is facing

[@Iffy350]

I never liked the idea of landing or taking off on a runway that had an active crossing runway. They expect you to stop before a certain point but things can happen beyond the pilots control.

[@BSiskaAviation]

Nice

[@rylans.5365]

Just like HNL, 4 runways and variable winds

[@jett27j30]

I didn't even know this and I live there.

[@mystickage884]

They have one runway for planes to land and three to catch their falling stocks.

[@Humulator]

can you talk in metric i have no idea how long 12k feet is

[@DaMastaSkullFox]

please also give metric measurements.

[@jessecote11]

In case of an emergency more Albertans can escape and fly to to bc where they can rent a vehicle and take to the highways driving 40 under the speed-limit in the fast lane while simultaneously drifting in and out of their lane

[@nunyabidness3075]

Slightly off topic, flying a light plane into Calgary is like walking into the Pentagon as a Lieutenant. You get treated like some sort of fourth class citizen. Then, on top of that, they charge a fee. It was all the education I needed to join the fight against ATC privatization in the US. The whole “ a lip is a blip” nonsense is just that. Some blips are more important than other blips, which is reasonable, and I wouldn’t want to change that. Acting like they aren’t, while using classist rhetoric and spinning lies is just wrong. Anyways, back to Calgary, prop planes often fly lots of circles waiting to land on a cross runway. Just go to Spring Bank (which is what they want you to do anyways). They will generally waste your time and money such that you can be downtown faster flying there and driving the extra distance.

[@b.p.7153]

Now, maybe you could teach ATC how to actually use the runways properly?

[@FluxDeimos]

I hate when they have to use 26/08 XD it goes right over my house XD

[@fly4fun07]

The Monthly Operations Summarys that can be found at the link below, show a summary of the actual winds direction and strength for each month. www.yyc.com/en-us/calgaryairportauthority/noisemanagement/publications.aspx www.yyc.com/Portals/0/2018_Monthly%20Operations%20Summaries.pdf