A staging route is born
As the demand for commercial flying services in the North increased, the federal Department of Transport developed an airway between Edmonton and Whitehorse based on routes established by bush pilots and a consideration of the shortest route between the centre of the continent and the Orient (the Great Circle Route). In 1939 an airway survey established a route linking existing airports at Grande Prairie, Alberta, Fort St. John and Fort Nelson, B.C., and Watson Lake and Whitehorse in the Yukon. The Canadian government expanded these airports with 3,000 ft. x 500 ft. runways and some storage and maintenance facilities. These improvements were done to make it safer to fly across this remote area. The chain of airports was known as the Northwest Staging Route.
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New hangars under construction at Whitehorse Airport October 15, 1943... (view more details)
http://www.alaskahighwayarchives.ca/en/chap4/2stagingroute.php