Frobisher Bay

During World War II, the U.S. established a weather/radio station at the site, code-named "Crystal Two", and then built an airstrip in 1942-43 as part of the Crimson Route between California and the United Kingdom. Through this airport passed hundreds of aircraft destined for the Allies via Greenland and Iceland. Frobisher Bay Air Force Base declined with the end of World War II. Soon, however, the Cold War stimulated construction of the Distant Early Warning (DEW) Line, to defend North America from Soviet nuclear bomber attack. DEW Line radar sites stretched from the Alaska-Yukon border across Northern Canada and into Greenland. Frobisher Bay again became an important staging point, as the eastern DEW Line air base for building supplies flown north by the Military Air Transport Service (MATS) of the US Air Force (USAF), supported by a huge civilian fleet. At one time Frobisher Bay saw 300 aircraft movements a day. Once the DEW Line opened in 1957 the airlift subsided and a second hiatus visited Frobisher Bay.

Henceforth, Frobisher Bay became something of a backwater, with Strategic Air Command (SAC) air refueling operations sustained mostly by MATS cargo flights (usually operated by C-124 Globemaster II (Douglas C-124). When the USAF closed its base in 1963, Iqaluit Airport continued as a commercial airport.