{ "@context": "https://schema.org", "@type": "Airport", "address": { "@type": "PostalAddress", "addressCountry": "Canada", "addressLocality": "Pikangikum" }, "airlines": [ "Air Canada" ], "amenityFeature": [ { "@type": "LocationFeatureSpecification", "name": "Domestic to Domestic Connection Time", "value": "45 minutes" }, { "@type": "LocationFeatureSpecification", "name": "Domestic to International Connection Time", "value": "90 minutes" }, { "@type": "LocationFeatureSpecification", "name": "International to Domestic Connection Time", "value": "90 minutes" }, { "@type": "LocationFeatureSpecification", "name": "International to International Connection Time", "value": "120 minutes" }, { "@type": "LocationFeatureSpecification", "name": "Interline Connection Time", "value": "120 minutes" } ], "city": "Pikangikum", "code": "YPM", "connection_tips": "Pikangikum Airport serves this First Nations community in Northwestern Ontario, positioned 1 nautical mile northeast of Pikangikum at 1,117 feet elevation. Community support services coordinate closely with airline operations to ensure passenger and cargo handling despite limited infrastructure. On August 14, 2017, Wasaya Airways launched twice-daily non-stop service from Winnipeg to Pikangikum and Sandy Lake, significantly improving southern connections. Wasaya Airways operates as a limited partnership fully owned by 12 First Nations communities including Pikangikum, providing vital connections for residents in areas with minimal road access. Passengers should prepare for basic terminal facilities and coordinate ground transportation within the community in advance.\n\nThe airport coordinates with Red Lake, Sioux Lookout, and Pickle Lake hubs to serve 25 remote communities across Northwestern Ontario and eastern Manitoba. Seasonal variations significantly impact operations, with winter bringing extreme cold, snow loading concerns, and reduced visibility conditions requiring instrument approaches. The airport operates within Canada's northern aviation framework, requiring specialized aircraft equipped for challenging weather conditions and short runway operations. Weather planning requires attention to northern Ontario's harsh conditions including severe winter storms, icing conditions, and temperature extremes affecting aircraft performance and ground operations.\n\nGround services are basic but essential for community needs, supporting medical evacuations, government services, and supply chain logistics for Pikangikum's residents. Wasaya Airways and Bearskin Airlines provide essential scheduled passenger services, with Bearskin Airlines accounting for 63% of all departures to four destinations across the region. The facility exemplifies the critical role of aviation in maintaining connections between isolated First Nations communities and urban centers. Flight planning must account for limited alternate airports in the region and rapidly changing weather patterns common to the Hudson Bay lowlands.", "country": "Canada", "flag_url": "https://flagcdn.com/w320/ca.png", "flight_search_affiliate_link": "https://book.beatthatflight.com.au/?currency=CAD", "frequent_traveler_tip": [ "Check current schedules for transfers through Pikangikum Airport.", "Check your flight status before leaving for the airport.", "Allow extra time during peak travel periods at this airport.", "Keep important documents easily accessible at this airport.", "Download your airline's mobile app for updates at this airport." ], "global_map_link": "https://www.google.com/maps?q=Pikangikum+Airport", "google_maps_reviews": { "rating": 0.0, "recent_reviews": [], "total_reviews": 0 }, "has_commercial_service": true, "hotel_affiliate_link": "https://book.beatthatflight.com.au/?currency=CAD", "iataCode": "YPM", "icao": "CYPM", "international": false, "last_modified": "July 2026", "last_updated": "2026-03-29", "latitude": 51.819698, "layover_planner_info": "Pikangikum Airport (YPM) works best for straightforward domestic turns, not for building aggressive connection margins around multiple separate tickets. Use this page's published MCTs as the floor: 45 minutes for domestic transfers, 120 minutes when interline support is available. For longer stops in Pikangikum, assume terminal amenities may be secondary to the surrounding landside area, and keep backup routing through Toronto Pearson International (YYZ) and Poplar Hill Airport (YHP) in mind if the day starts to slip.", "longitude": -93.973297, "mct_domestic_to_domestic": 45, "mct_domestic_to_international": 90, "mct_interline": 120, "mct_international_to_domestic": 90, "mct_international_to_international": 120, "missed_connection_help": "If you miss a connection at Pikangikum Airport (YPM), start with the operating airline or transfer desk before leaving the secure area, especially if bags are checked through or your itinerary relies on interline handling. This airport publishes a 120-minute interline buffer, so ask staff to confirm whether onward sectors and baggage can be protected on the same journey before you commit to a new ticket. If same-day recovery fails, compare rebooking options via Toronto Pearson International (YYZ) and Poplar Hill Airport (YHP).", "name": "Pikangikum Airport", "noindex": false, "region": "North America", "related_airports": [ { "code": "YYZ", "name": "Toronto Pearson International" }, { "code": "YHP", "name": "Poplar Hill Airport" }, { "code": "YRL", "name": "Red Lake Airport" } ], "terminal_info": "Pikangikum Airport serves the Ojibwe First Nation experiencing the world's highest documented suicide rate\u2014250 per 100,000 in 2011, nearly 20 times Canada's average\u2014where 74 documented suicides occurred from 1990-2007 in this community Maclean's magazine called 'the suicide capital of the world' in 2012. Located 1.9 kilometers northeast on the 1,808-hectare reserve beside Pikangikum Lake on the Berens River, this facility provides the only year-round access to 3,194 registered members (3,057 on-reserve) maintaining nearly 100% Ojibway language fluency despite overwhelming social crisis.\n\nThe airport features infrastructure supporting Wasaya Airways scheduled service connecting this isolated community 100 kilometers north of Red Lake, where Justice David Gibson documented 24 years of 'steady and rapid increase in community size, explosion in violent crime and deterioration of living conditions.' Terminal facilities coordinate operations serving a settlement where temperatures drop to -40\u00b0C, homes heat with wood stoves, generator fuel shortages force school closures, and mould problems resulted in 700 children repeating a school year, while families bury youth suicide victims in front yards following Elder religious traditions opposing cemetery burial.\n\nOperational characteristics center on crisis response including medical evacuations for suicide attempts and gasoline huffing incidents particularly among women and girls, cargo delivery of essential supplies to combat infrastructure failures, and connections supporting external intervention attempts addressing the catastrophe. The facility handled emergency response during 2017's particularly devastating period when four adolescents including two 12-year-olds took their lives within two weeks, contributing to Nishnawbe Aski Nation territory's 24 suicides that year\u2014the most since 2006.\n\nStrategic importance encompasses maintaining aviation access to document and address Canada's most severe Indigenous mental health crisis where suicide rates exceed global wartime levels, supporting intervention efforts despite community resistance to outside assistance, preserving connections for one of Ontario's largest on-reserve First Nations populations struggling with intergenerational trauma, and ensuring emergency access to a community where traditional Ojibwe culture including front-yard burial practices intersects with modern social collapse creating conditions British sociologists identified as producing humanity's highest recorded suicide rates.", "terminal_map_url": "https://skyvector.com/airport/CYPM/Pikangikum-Airport" }