The YVR terminal buildings as you say in the above video, the large TCA/Air Canada terminal building is still there as the South Terminal. My comments are more about the other building.

As I recall, that was sort of an “interim” terminal, and everybody was crammed into it before the larger glass-enclosed building was built. The original Vancouver air terminal was built in the mid-1930s. Tom McGrath’s book “History of Canadian Airports” has a photo of it in 1937, with Lockheed 12A CF-CCT at the completion of its Trans-Canada Flight in 1937.

That original terminal had a control tower built in the center of the building. The old terminal burned to the ground in 1949 and was replaced in 1950 by a “temporary” building, which I believe is the one that CP, PWA, etc. were still using in 1960. This building did have a tower included. Not sure when the separate structure was erected.

The “North Terminal” was extended in 1952 and on July 1, 1957, the “West Terminal” (now the South Terminal) was opened. The old North Terminal was expanded again in 1963, and eventually torn down when the existing main terminal was built in the middle of the airport in opening in 1968.

So, I would have flown in and out of that old terminal in 1957 when I flew in a PWA Canso (one of two they had) over to Tofino and back for some BCTel work.

I would have also flown out of it in 1956, when the RCAF allowed me to fly to and from Toronto for my RCAF Tech Officer Summer training at Camp Borden. Normally, we had to travel by train, but I had already travelled both ways by CNR in 1954 and both ways by CPR in 1955, so I managed to sweet-talk the Orderly Room into paying me my travel claim in cash and letting me make my own way.

The way it worked was that they assumed I was on the train, so paid me the train fare, the price of a lower berth, meals and tips for the porter (25¢ by day and 50¢ by night), taxi, etc. In theory, I was on the train for 4 days each way, so I was taken on strength and struck off strength accordingly. In fact, instead of spending most of the week on the train and arriving at Borden a day or so early, I flew the TCA North Star red-eye to Toronto on a Saturday night, took the local train up to Borden on Sunday and was ready to start my course on Monday. The cost worked out about the same…my travel claim worked out in the range of $100 – 120 and the North Star fare was about $100 – 110 each way, plus I shipped my duffel back home on the train when I flew in 1956.

In 1961, when I flew to and from Winnipeg in a TCA Vanguard, I would have flown out of the West Terminal.

Then, when I went to Hawaii by CPAir Britannia in 1962 and 1963, it would have been out of that “temporary” North Terminal that must have stood there for about 13 years.

As I recall, there was a period of years, after the air terminal operation had been moved to the present location, when the current South Terminal was converted into a Cargo Terminal, then back to what is it now for the smaller local airlines.

The convertible parked in front of the South Terminal is a 1960 Pontiac. I thought at first it was a 1960 Buick, but the back end isn’t quite right. I had a 1959 Buick 2-door hardtop, with the big wings, but they toned them down and rounded them off a bit in the 1960 model.

Kerrisdale Taxi, I don’t remember them, but in that time frame there were less than 400 Vancouver taxi licences, spread over a great many small operators. Between 1950 and 1980, the number of taxi licences remained frozen at 363!! I can see at least 4 Kerrisdale Taxi vehicles in the photos in your video above. They are 1958 Pontiacs, we had the same models as company cars at BCTel at that time. The flashy red car is a 1958 or 1959 Dodge.

The airport taxi concession was held for many years by MacClure’s Taxis, based in the Marpole area, who also owned Airline Limousines Ltd.(or was their name Airport Limousines??) MacClure’s have been around since 1911 and are still in business. It may be that Kerrisdale Taxi was owned by MacClure’s or were later absorbed into MacClure’s. What I found by looking them up was that MacClure’s / Airline Limousines had the exclusive airport pickup concession from 1968 to 1980, so perhaps before that it was a free-for-all for anybody to pick up at YVR?

A report I found stated: “By the boom years of the late 1920s, the city had dozens of rival taxi companies, names that have mostly disappeared from the public memory. There was ABC Taxi and BB Taxi; Fifty Cent Taxi and Fred’s Dollar Taxi; Frisco and Hollywood; Owl and Sun; Canadian and Dominion; Commercial and Webster’s Peerless; Devonshire and Kerrisdale; Mikado and Nabata; Queens and Empress and Royal City; Ready and Roamer; De Luxe and Gold Band.”

The 1950s and 1960s were time of consolidation in the Vancouver taxi business, and most of the small operators became part of the bigger fleets of MacClure’s, Yellow, Black Top/Checker and Advance Taxis. The owner-operators became shareholders/co-owners in the larger taxi companies and that is the way it still is, as far as I know.

Getting back to the photos in your video, as far as I can recall, the doors did indeed empty out onto the tarmac and passengers went out and up the portable airstairs into the aircraft as you stated.

When you show the Super Connie photo with the Okanagan hangar in the background, you say this is facing South. This is actually facing West and that old Okanagan hangar was there for a long time, I think it is still there along Agar Drive, on the way into the FBOs on the West side. Have a look at the later photo of the TCA DC-8, with the same hangar in the background.

The old TCA schedule in your video: note at the end of the list of Vancouver flights there is a North Star red-eye service in each direction. That is the reverse of the flight I look in 1956 to Toronto. Left YVR late at night, one stopover in Winnipeg and into Toronto early the next morning. The exhaust flame of the Merlin engines was very spectacular at night!

Fares as I noted above, the one-way North Star fare between Toronto and Vancouver was, as I remember, $110 in 1956. Almost exactly the same as the RCAF paid me to, in theory, take the train for four days including fare, birth, meals, tips, etc.

Have another look at that photo of the United Airlines 720. Are you sure it is 1960, the same as the others? See the hangar in the background, just ahead of the tail of the 720. That is not the RCAF wartime hangar, it is the first hangar that Air Canada built over on the North side, and I don’t think it is anywhere to be seen in the earlier 1960 photos that show the other side. I think you slipped a non-1960 shot in there! (Note: I checked the actual slide and it was actually taken in July of 1961, so Jerry is correct in pointing out it could not have been taken in 1960.)

And then Ron Moor sent me the following comments:

Hi Henry I really enjoyed your video presentation of the old airport. I started working there with United Airlines in 1962. Just a couple of points. United had its own check in counter and offices in the West terminal along with Trans Canada Airlines.US Customs had a small office behind the counter. Checked in passengers exited out and down a covered walkway to an enclosed building where US immigration were located and the waiting room called Gate 6. All the time I was there they never used the Canadian Pacific airlines North terminal. I thought you would enjoy this.

On Sunday June 15, 1958, Aeroflot TU-104 jetliner CCCP-175445 at the Vancouver airport airshow on Sunday, June 25, 1958. It was here that Boeing’s 707 Test Pilot Tex Johnson told the TU-104 what he thought about the aircraft after having had a flight on it that day: “I have a message for the captain. Please tell him that in my twenty-one thousand hours of piloting time, the TU-104 is the sorriest damn airplane I have ever had the misfortune of flying in.”

An airshow was held on Sunday June 15, 1958 at Vancouver’s Sea Island Airport as part of the Province’s 100th anniversary celebrations. The race for leadership in the passenger jetliner market was heating up in the late 1950s with numerous aircraft builders bringing brand new jet powered airliners to the forefront.

The cold war realities brought the Americans and the Russians face-to-face at the Vancouver Airshow with Boeing bringing their new Boeing 707, and the Russians bringing their new Tupolev TU-104 jetliner. Both jetliners performed demonstration flights that day, and the story of the friction between the two competing aircraft builders was relayed to the public in newspaper stories of the day.

What follows is an account as described by the Price George Citizen paper that was headlined “Incident at Vancouver Airshow: Russian Pilot Gives – And Gets – Emphatic ‘Niet’”

The East-West curtain was parted for a day in Vancouver on Sunday, June 15, 1958, and what might have been become an international aeronautical incident, was actually averted.

The giant Russian airliner, the all-jet Tupolev TU-104, was on public view at Vancouver’s International Airport at an airshow. Air Force officials estimated 100,000 people attended the airshow, part of a two-day British Columbia centennial event.

But Russian-United States relations became a little strained at one point during the day. Captain T. T. Frolov, the Russian plane’s pilot, had been granted permission to make a courtesy flight and visit to Victoria airport from Vancouver – a mere 75 miles as the jet flies. But the trip had to be cancelled.

The flight path of the aircraft would have brought it close to the international border where San Juan Island (American Territory) juts into Canadian territorial waters in the Georgia Strait.

Captain Frolov, fearing slight drift might accidentally cause him to cross the US boundary, asked that assurances would be given so that his aircraft would not be challenged by U.S. jet interceptors. Canadian Air Force officials were told by the Americans that no such assurances would be forthcoming from the U.S. Air Force authorities.

The Russian pilot was told “Nobody will say, they the Americans won’t scramble, even if just to take a look at you.” Therefore, diplomatically, the TU-104 flight to Victoria was cancelled, and instead a courtesy flight over greater Vancouver was planned, with government officials, aviation representatives from both Canada and the USA, and newspapermen being invited aboard.

Earlier in the day, Captain Frolov and his officers were taken on a demonstration flight aboard the Boeing 707 jet Stratoliner, as guests of A. M. Tex Johnston, Chief of Flight Testing for the Boeing Aircraft Company. Once the 707 was aloft, Tex Johnston invited Captain Frolov to sit in the pilot’s seat and handle the 707’s flight controls for most of the hour-long flight.

Captain Frolov said the Boeing 707 had “beautiful flight control” and seemed impressed with Boeing’s new jetliner. Later the same day, a reciprocal invitation was extended by the Russians to the Boeing 707 crew to join the Tupolev TU-104 demonstration flight. Johnston asked if the favour could be returned so he could handle the controls of the Tupolev TU-104. Frolov said “niet”.

Johnston then asked if he could sit in the Co-Pilot’s seat and Captain Frolov again refused the request, explaining that it took two trained men to fly the Russian plane. At this point, Johnston retired from the discussion, but later said the TU-104 appeared heavy to handle and slow to respond. Tex Johnston was quoted in the media as saying “For my money their plane is obsolete”.

At the airshow’s ground display, a number of people collapsed in the 100-degree outdoor temperature near the Russian plane, which was a major attraction of the airshow. On one occasion, the barriers around the TU-104 were carried away by the crowd when told to stand back to avoid being scorched by the jet exhausts.

In his book Jet Age Test Pilot, Tex Johnston provided a detailed account of the events that took place at the 1958 Vancouver airshow. Specifically, he recalled that when they were back on the ramp upon arrival from the TU-104 demonstration flight, with the deplaning stairway in place, and the engines winding down, Tex Johnston turned to the navigator and said, “I have a message for the Captain. Please tell him that in my twenty-one thousand hours of piloting time, the TU-104 is the sorriest damn airplane I have ever had the misfortune of flying in.” The navigator sat and looked at me. “Go ahead. Tell him exactly what I said.”

As airline history would transpire in the decades after this event, the Boeing 707 family of jetliners became the staple of international jet travel, and were only replaced when more fuel efficient wide-body jetliners were delivered to the world’s airlines in the 1970s. Conversely, the Tupolev 104 was a commercial failure with only 201 airframes built by the time produced ended in 1960. The Tupolev 104 was only operated by Aeroflot and Czech State airline CSA. By comparison 1010 Boeing 707s were built by the time production of the last 707 variants ended in the early 1980s.

This interesting facet of the history of the jet race coupled with Cold War tensions, took place on the apron at YVR, some half century ago. And now you know the story!

On Sunday June 15, 1958, an Aeroflot TU-104 jetliner CCCP-175445 participated in an airshow held at Vancouver airport in celebrations supporting the 100th anniversary of the Canadian Province.

April 2, 2020
Report by Henry Tenby

As a Vancouver based aviation enthusiast with interest in the aviation hobby and business dating back to at least 1967, I was curious as to how the effects of the deepening COVID crisis were impacting our local airport. Usually a hotbed of flight activity in normal times, with loads of flights from Asia coming and going on a daily basis, I wanted to see just how much things were wound down at YVR.

So I ventured out to YVR on the afternoon of April 2, 2020, and arrived at the main terminal around 5pm. The video report above documents exactly what I observed, and to put it bluntly, the airport is a dead zone. I also went to the south side of the airport to have a look at the scene for the third level commuters and the South Terminal, and the situation over there was much the same. Within 24 hours of uploading my report video it had garnered about 1,000 views, which for me is a hell of a lot of views as my aviation videos will typically generate maybe a few hundred views within the first few weeks of posting.

Several people took the time to share their thoughts with me. And I am going to share them here in the spirit of providing an historical reference to this situation at empty airports all around the world. Let us pray that the situation will not last for more than a few months.

Ron Kosys. – Coventry UK
Somewhat disappointing to see. It brings it home to me that it isn’t just the UK aviation industry suffering at the moment. I haven’t been to BHX since the stay at home restrictions were brought in, but BHX is worse than a ghost town. Britain’s second city in terms of population airport (but less busy than MAN due to its geographical location) is now down to THREE flights per day – one Lingus, one Ryanair (both Dublin), KLM (obviously Amsterdam), and a fourth three days a week – Qatar. And that’s your lot.

Lingus are rumoured to be operating it’s last flight tomorrow as was KLM – however KLM have now requested slots for an Embraer everyday next week rather than a 737. Another business – the Airport Authority itself – that could see itself asking for a bailout. The only other flying business is a couple of freighters a day, both of which bring in spares and supplies for the NHS. You no doubt saw it on the BBC online news that ground handling companies are all in dire trouble. If they fail, especially Swissport, we’re stuffed.

The former Flybe engineering hangar is now being converted into a morgue. Consequently you simply cannot get near the old side (cargo) now, it being heavily Policed after the press shot a stack of images from the car park the other day of vehicles going in and out, and published the lot. It’s almost as though the press have a campaign of trying to frighten a proportion of the population to death.

A Motor Sich An12 was due on Wednesday, slipped to Thursday, and then Friday before arriving in the dark last night. It left as soon as the airport re-opened this morning (it’s closed overnight now due lack of traffic), also in the dark since the clocks changed. Unless you ‘bent the rules’, time it right, and went to the park at the 15 end photography now at BHX is currently not really an option. It would be just my luck for me to be the one who gets checked whilst out getting my ‘daily exercise’. I do photography for the pleasure, not for the hassle. I forgot to ask Henry, I presume there’s a gaggle of Pacific Coastal at YVR as well?

As each day goes by it appears more and more that this sad situation is going to be with us for more than a couple of months. In order for things to start getting back on their feet, the UK needs other European countries to start improving at the same time. And when that time does come, how many airlines would have bitten the dust in the meantime?

Terry Rea – Vancouver, BC
Just watched your sad but current video of our present day situation @ YVR – sad times for the city and all our YVR staff. I just retired recently after my 52 year career starting with YVR-S Airport Control Tower – trainee. It was August 1967 @ Age 18 just finished High School (PW) at my first job and loving it ! Worked the Viscounts, Vanguards, DC4s, DC6s, Super-Connies, Electras, and the UA brand new B727-100, QF B707, etc! 52 years later still enjoyed working our YVR air traffic in our present, the 3rd, ATC Control Tower!

This reminded me of my shift on 9/11; we landed many a/c @ YVR with the FAA-mandated deviations, eventually closing our N Rwy to be used for aircraft parking. We then had to take care of thousands Pax and Crew on a moment’s notice – converted our new Parkade to an emergency care center providing food, water, blankets etc while we waited for advice on what to expect next! My midnite shift next day was eerily strange, with only 1 departure the whole shift – a LR35 Medevac – 3 days later we resumed operations best we could – it was controlled chaos after 3 days of strange emptiness, such as we have now.

Things will eventually normalize but its gonna be a rough ride for the Aviation Industry for a while. What a change from last year when we were setting traffic records. Take care and stay safe!

Kevin Hickey – Calgary, Canada
Very sad footage Henry. I walked through the YYC terminal last week and it was a ghost town as well. I saw the occasional bored staff member walking around and that was it.

It also looks like a Westjet graveyard here with multiple airplanes scattered all over the aprons, taxiways, and even on runway 08/26. It almost looks like they went out of business and all of the planes are taped and sealed up, including the 767s.

Flying in here is extremely quiet on the radio now and we are constantly being given all kinds of unusual shortcuts. The sky is empty. Edmonton has some Swoops and Flairs that look like they’re going to be sitting for a while as well, about two tails each from what I could see. Hopefully this is the last time that we witness anything like this.

Granville Street Vancouver BC circa 1954. Photo was taken looking north in the heart of the city’s theatre district with numerous neon signs. This street is the main street of Vancouver and extends from West 70th near the airport, all the way to the wharf, a length of 10 miles. (Colour photo courtesy of Canadian Pacific Railway, post card published by Vancouver Magazine Services LTD.)

I recently stumbled across a small collection of old colour postcards I collected decades ago, depicting Vancouver’s vibrant theatre district of Granville Street and all the neon signed movie theatres of the day. From the movies in the theatre marquis, we can date the views to the period between 1953 and 1955.

It really was amazing just how many movie theatres dotted this prime real estate of the day. None of the theatres exist in their original form of showing feature films, but some lasted into the 1980s. The postcards show the Vogue, Orpheum, Capitol, Paradise and Plaza screens, with fabulous 1950s vehicles and brill buses, which remained in service with BC Hydro also until the mid 1980s.

Some of cards also show the north end of Burrard Street and the Vancouver Harbour, Coal Harbour, and the then prominent Marine Building, which was mentioned as the tallest building in the city on the caption of one of the cards. These images were probably taken from the higher floors of the Hotel Vancouver at Burrard and Georgia. The BC Electic building was built in the mid 1950s and displaced the Marine Building as the tallest building in the city.

The cards were published by several long defunct picture postcard publishers based in Vancouver, including Vancouver Magazine Services, Natural Color Productions, The Coast Publishing Company, Walker & Ward Scenic Cards and Grant-Mann Lithographers. I hope you enjoy these vintage views as much as I have over the decades of owning these postcards.

As a side note, I am a collector of old colour slides from the 1960s, 1950s and earlier. If you have any old 35mm colour slides, please do not thrown them away. I would be happy to preserve them for future generations, and can even supply you with scans of the best view with my compliments. So please contact me. I am specially interested in slides of aircraft taken in the 1950s and 1960s.

A bird’s eye view of Vancouver, BC looking north from the B.C. Electric Building, showing a portion of the downtown skyline. Vancouver Harbour and the North Shore Mountains in the background. (Plastichrome, Published by Natural Colour Productions Ltd., Vancouver, BC)

Vancouver, BC, Canada waterfront view at dusk circa 1954. (Kodachrome postcard published by The Coast Publishing Company, Vancouver, BC)

Granville Street Vogue and Orpheum Theatres circa 1954. Granville is Vancouver’s busiest and most colourful street, showing the heart of the city’s vibrant theatre district, with its numerous neon signs. (Grant-Mann Lithographers LTD “COLOR CARD” division, Vancouver, BC)

Night scene of Vancouver, BC, Canada, showing a portion of the theatre district. Vancouver is known for its high concentration of neon in the downtown area. We can date this image to 1955, the year the film “Above Us the Waves” staring John Mills was released theatrically. (Postcard published by Vancouver Magazine Services LTD., Vancouver, BC)

Granville Street looking south from Georgia with the Capitol Theatre, Famous Players theatre, Parades Theatre and the Plaza Theatre. We can date this view to 1953, the year of theatrical release of “Sea of Lost Ships” starring John Derek and Wanda Hendrix. (Published by Walker & Ward Scenic Cards LTD., Vancouver, BC, Canada)

Hotel Vancouver scenic view circa 1954, along with a section of downtown showing the Court House Square, Vancouver Harbour, North Vancouver and the North Shore mountains. (Postcard published by Natural Color Productions Ltd., Vancouver, B.C.)

Dusk view of Granville Street looking south and the then new BC Electric Building circa mid 1950s. The BC Electric building was the new head office for the Vancouver based electric utility company in a modern 21 story, 285 foot high structure. (Rolly Ford photo, postcard published by Natural Color Productions LTD., Vancouver, B.C.)

Mid 1950s aerial view of Vancouver BC and Harbour, showing the busy West Georgia Street running east to west with the then new Post Office building in the lower right corner. (Postcard published by Natural Color Productions Ltd., Vancouver, B.C.)

The Customs and Marine Building on the waterfront at the north end of Vancouver’s Burrard Street, stands majestic against the city’s vibrant harbour. Notice how empty the now traffic clogged Burrard street was in the mid 1950s! According to the caption on the back of the card “The North Shoreline Mountains are snow-covered most of the year and form excellent skiing grounds. Two electric ski lifts make this ski playground famed throughout the Northwest.” (Postcard published by Vancouver Magazine Services LTD., Vancouver, B.C.)

Another view of the Customs and Marine Building on the waterfront at the north end of Vancouver’s Burrard Street, with the YMCA in the lower right of the image. Notice all the available ground level parking lots that were available back then. (Kodachrome Postcard published by The Coast Publishing Company, Vancouver, Canada.)

Vancouver Waterfront Coal Harbour as viewed from Stanley park circa 1954. In the foreground are boats belonging to the Burrard Yacht Club. In the background can be seen the prominent Marine Building, the then tallest building in Vancouver. (Postcard published by Vancouver Magazine Services LTD., Vancouver, B.C.)

In October, 1967, Canadian Pacific Airlines wet leased a Boeing 707-138B from Seattle-based Standard Airways. The aircraft was painted in full CPA colours, and for the most part operated CPA’s scheduled service to Honolulu, and was also seen in Mexico City.

This was quite a rare aircraft and her time with CPA was short-lived as the result of a landing accident at Vancouver, the morning of February 7, 1968. The 707 was operating CP flight 322 inbound from Honolulu, and as is typical that time of year, weather conditions were foggy and calm.

The following article written for Airliners Magazine documents this unfortunate event.