Nowadays, air travel has become so popular, it is hard to decide which is the most important
airport in the world.
Sure, some are more useful, efficient, safe, and
luxurious than others, but that doesn't make them necessarily more important.
This couldn't be said almost a decade ago when commercial aviation was at its beginning...
Now, let's talk about Newfoundland, an island off the east coast of Canada.
The interior of Newfoundland is a combination of forest, lakes, rivers spread over a rocky
terrain, where the chances are that you're probably going to see a moose dancing on an
iceberg before you see a human.
But, if it weren't for this island here, trans-continental aviation between Europe and North America
would have probably been a real challenge until the early nineteen sixties.
So, what made this island so important?
Firstly, its position played a crucial role in trans-Atlantic aviation.
Newfoundland is as far east as you can go and still be in Canada.
It is so far east in fact, that it has its own time zone, half an hour later than Labrador,
although they are considered one province.
SO FAR EAST, that is closer to Ireland than any of these U.S states beyond this line.
Now, let's go back a decade into time.
On June fourteenth nineteen-nineteen, two British aviators took off from a field in
Newfoundland and arrived sixteen hours later on the west coast of Ireland.
This was the first crossing of the Atlantic ocean in less than seventy-two hours.
It made sense that if you were worried about crossing the Atlantic and not running out
of fuel, the best option was to start in Newfoundland.
The British government, who controlled the island back then, realized that air travel
between the two continents was possible, so, in nineteen thirty-six, they chose a patch
of woods in the north-eastern part of Newfoundland and on the thirty-first of October, nineteen-thirty
nine, they opened the Gander Airport, which at that time, was the biggest airport in the
world.
Despite this, its massive runways remained unused, because there just weren't that many
planes that could make it across the Atlantic with passengers and cargo.
By that time, only a few planes made it over the ocean, and forty people died trying, so
it was a pretty risky job.
But then a certain man invaded a certain country and World War Two began.
The Allied forces wanted as many fighter planes as they could get.
Canada and the United States had been shipping planes by boat, but that took a very long
time and it was inefficient because a lot of ships were destroyed by German submarines.
So, in nineteen forty, they started flying planes from Gander Airport to the UK.
In November of that same year, seven planes were brought to the United Kingdom, and during
the war, more than twenty thousand followed.
Winston Churchill himself referred to Gander as the largest aircraft carrier in The North
Atlantic.
Gander made history, although, in the nineteen forties, there was no town of Gander.
It was just the airport and the workers who lived near the runways.
After the end of the war, there was a boom in commercial air travel, and a separate town
was built near the airport.
And although the war ended, Gander was still in the spotlight.
You see, if a plane wanted to get from London to New York, it had to stop in Gander to refuel,
so almost every flight that crossed the Atlantic went through here.
This is how, Gander got its nickname, the "Crossroads of the World".
However, because it served as a military airport during the war, it had an old World War Two
hangar where the planes refueled.
And for a lot of passengers, it was the first time in Canada, so the government decided
that an old rusty hangar wouldn't leave such a good first impression of the country.
With this being said, they built something spectacular... an International lounge with
Italian furniture and beautiful sculptures, which cost 3.
Million.
Dollars.
This, unfortunately, marked the end of Gander Airport.
But, fortunately, it marked the beginning...of the Gander.
International.
Airport.
And to celebrate the opening of this international lounge, the lady herself, the legendary mayor
of a small town from Quebec came to Gander.
Oh, and I almost forgot, the Queen of England and her husband were also there.
Until the nineteen sixties, almost every day four hundred planes and about eleven thousand
passengers stopped there.
These were the glory days of Gander.
Celebrities from all over the world went through this airport when leaving or entering the
United States.
Marilyn Monroe, she was in Gander.
The king of Saudi Arabia and Frank Sinatra, they passed through Gander.
The first North American city the Beatles have ever stepped in, was, Gander.
Fidel Castro taking dinner with some workers at the airport, then going for a tour of a
city with the same guys and then sledded on a snowy street - that also happened in Gander.
Gander was really connecting North America and Europe and it was a hot spot, being the
most famous and important airport at the time.
That stayed this way until the end of the nineteen-sixties when the jet engine was invented
and popularized.
Jet airlines were able to fly much higher, faster, and farther than older piston‑powered
planes, making transcontinental travel considerably faster and easier.
Suddenly, refueling wasn't necessary and air routes bypassed Gander and headed straight
for the US.
So, Gander started seeing a downward trend in popularity and importance...
However, it still had one very crucial role.
You see, planes from Eastern Europe weren't allowed to enter the American Airspace, so
aircraft that wanted to go from the East of Europe to Cuba, stopped in Gander to refuel.
It became the most important stopping point between Moscow and Havana.
This, however, made many people coming from communist countries try to seek asylum in
Canada and escape communism.
Some did not succeed, but others did, thus Gander, in his day, was a multi-cultural city.
Canadians, French, Brits, Russians, Cubans lived there altogether.
But, slowly, with the fall of communist countries around Europe and planes just getting better
and better, Gander International Airport, became...quiet, for the first time in the
twentieth century.
It seemed like it would remain that way, as it didn't really have a use anymore.
Until September eleven, two thousand and one, when the single deadliest terrorist attack
in the world happened.
Following the attacks, the American Government decided to shut down the American airspace,
so all flights mid-air were directed to...Canada.
Thirty-eight of which landed in...
Gander.
Seven thousand people, with nothing but the clothes on their backs, were now stranded
in this small town in Newfoundland.
The population of the city almost doubled overnight.
The residents of the city took the stranded passengers or, 'The Plane People', in their
homes and gave them food and a place to sleep.
This was dangerous, and they were advised by the authorities not to accommodate anyone
because no one knew how widely spread this terrorist attack could be.
But, Gander was there to help, and some strong bonds formed between the people, at least
1 marriage is reported to have resulted from this.
Nowadays, Gander is quiet.
It still has some international traffic, but it's mostly used for military planes, emergency
landings, and for private airlines.
The international lounge built in nineteen fifty-nine, still remains unchanged.
It is a time capsule going back to an era that has been long gone, when Gander was in
the spotlight and when Fidel Castro was sledding down the town's snowy streets.