Canandaigua Airport Through the Decades

The Early Years

Today, the Canandaigua Airport occupies nearly 50 acres along Brickyard and Thomas roads in the town of Canandaigua, New York. The idea to have an airport at this location began in 1948.

The 1990s

In 1994, the OCIDA, a New York state-approved chartered institution created to encourage economic development, started working with community leaders in Canadaigua to change or improve the original grass airstrip at Brickyard and Thomas roads.

Local business partners led a campaign to convince Ontario County officials to create a county airport. What ensued was more than a decade of controversy surrounding where the airport should be located, whether the Board of Supervisors should fund a feasibility study and if the airport should even be a county project at all.

Despite opposition, mostly due to the misunderstanding of the long-range positive economic viability an airport brings to a region, prominent business leaders worked with politicians in New York and FAA officials in Washington DC to develop a plan for the airport.

The Ontario County IDA qualifies for FAA funds to create a year-round full service airport. Groundbreaking for Canandaigua Airport took place on June 16, 1994.

The 2000s

The runaway extension project. Jets.

The 2010s

Future plans to build a terminal.

The 2020s

New Fixed Base Operator announced in March 2023: VAS Operations.