Winnipeg/CMEDIA: Minnesota-Manitoba border airport reportedly with a runway that spans across the Canada-U.S. border will close for good Dec 27.
After more than 70 years, the Piney-Pinecreek Border Airport, – located south of Piney, Man., more than 150 kilometres southeast of Winnipeg, is set to shut down.
According to the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT), the airport was rarely used and required a lot of maintenance, specifically to its runway, apron and terminal.
In a news release announcing the closure, MnDOT said the general aviation airport had operated under an international agreement between MnDOT and the rural municipality of Piney since 1949. The airport had “very low use,” MnDOT said, and faced large maintenance expenses, including runway, apron and terminal reconstruction.
The international agreement required to operate the airport expires Dec. 26 and will not be renewed by either airport owner, MnDOT said.
When first opened in July 1953 on the U.S. side to expedite cross-border aviation traffic and fast-track customs proceedings for travellers, the runway ended where the Canadian border began.
In the early 1970s, when a runway expansion was proposed intending the extension of runway into Canada, making it one of the only bi-international airports that crosses the Canada-U.S. border.
MnDOT said in a statement on its website that the international agreement required to operate the airport expires Dec. 26 and will not be renewed.
News of the airport’s closure was a disappointment to residents of the area who remember the effort that went into getting it extended in the late 1970s.
“It’s a sorry situation, but the state of Minnesota isn’t willing to kick in…The state of Minnesota set the standards… millions of dollars worth of improvements up there, and the state’s not willing to pay for it on their own…They want the Canadian government …aren’t going to do it..it’s come down to finances,”Marlin Elton of Pinecreek, a member and former chairman of the Piney-Pinecreek Airport Commission has said.
Back in the day, when the concept of an airport straddling two countries was a big deal, a dedication ceremony was held Saturday, July 28, 1979, marking completion of a project to extend the runway into Manitoba
As the Grand Forks Herald. reported, the airport opened in 1952 with a 2,155-foot grass runway that provided pilots with access to U.S. and Canadian customs. But when the decision was made in 1972 to extend the runway to 3,200 feet to better accommodate night landings, the only direction to lengthen the runway was northwest into Manitoba.
“Nine different federal, provincial, state and local government agencies had to approve the project before construction could start,” the Herald reported. “An amendment to a U.S. Senate foreign aid bill clinched the agreement in 1977.”
About 400 people from both sides of the border gathered July 1979 to dedicate the airport extension.
Minnesota Gov. Al Quie and Manitoba Premier Sterling Lyon were among the dignitaries on hand to dedicate the project
Being on the airport commission at the time of the dedication, Elton said that a lot of hard work went into the extension project as pilots from all over the country have used the runway to cross between Canada and the U.S.
In its news release, MnDOT has said that several other airports nearby serve the northwest Minnesota general aviation community, including Warroad Memorial International Airport (RRT), Roseau Municipal Airport (ROX), Stephen Municipal Airport (D41) and Warren Municipal Airport (D37) with all of them having more annual aircraft operations and support existing based aircraft.
