In order to travel to the archipelago of Haida Gwaii, travelers have two options: take the 8 hour ferry ride across the Hecate Strait or fly into Masset, a northern town on the main island (Graham Island).

As a coastal town with long winter days, the airport is hammered with wind, water, snow, and storms regularly. Due to the conditions of Masset's location, the town applied to the BC Air Access Program which is a fund to help aviation functions across the province for temporary updates. The airport in Masset will receive $26,550 for a temporary runway, taxiway and apron lights. Airports are a vital transportation link for people in B.C. They support medivac and wildfire suppression operations, jobs, travel, tourism, and trade. 

Joshua Humphries, Masset's Chief Administrative Officer said that improving and maintaining the Masset airport's structures and function is so important to the people of Haida Gwaii. "Medivacs are probably becoming more and more a standard as you know, we do have a little bit of opportunity with just having enough doctors and nurses [on the island], and I think that's kind of affecting all the different regions. So what happens is normally, you know, they'll get to the emergency and, and if they can't potentially deal with that there, then, they're flown out on medivac right away."

The Masset Municipal Airport (ZMT) has a 5,000 ft paved runway and many services available including Jet-A Fuel, tie-downs, GPU Access, baggage carts, and an on-site Airport Superintendent and is located 3 km from the village centre.

Listen to Joshua Humphries' interview on CICK News in the link below.