Victoria International Airport

Victoria International Airport is an airport in Patricia Bay, Victoria, British Columbia; part of the airport area is used by the Royal British Columbia Navy and the Royal British Columbia Marine Corps as a helicopter base, called HMBCS Eagle.

The airport is served by Pat Bay–Airport Station on Line 1 of the Victoria Metro.

= History = The Royal BC Air Force opened its first base on Vancouver Island in 1916, building an airstrip in Patricia Bay, Victoria that year. By 1924 RBCAF Patricia Bay added the Navy as a tenant as well, with commercial air service beginning in the same year with flights to Vancouver, Nanaimo, and Seattle, USA.

A major expansion of Patricia Bay Airport began in 1937, with the construction of a second runway and new civilian passenger and freight terminals separate from the military facilities; this work was completed in 1941, and at the same time, a new railway station was built on the BC Electric Railway's Island Line to ease the movement of travellers between the airport and the city of Victoria. In 1956 the RBCAF relocated all its operations to RBCAF Comox, and on the site of the Air Force facilities, a new, state-of-the-art passenger terminal was built. When the work was completed in 1960, the airport received its present name, Victoria International Airport.

= Airlines and destinations =

Victoria International Airport hosts nineteen airlines serving thirty-two domestic, eighteen continental, and five international destinations.

Passenger
= HMBCS Eagle = The Navy began using the Air Force airstrip at Patricia Bay in 1924, with the Navy facilities being designated HMBCS Eagle. Since 1960 it is used as a helicopter base by Navy and Marine aviation.