A significant milestone being celebrated at Windsor International Airport.
Airport officials are marking the 95th year in business on the land located on County Road 42 once owned by Hiram Walker on Friday afternoon.
A small gathering will take place with Windsor Airport partners and staff from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m.
Officials say the event will include tours of AAR Aircraft Services Windsor and the Canadian Historical Museum, both located on Airport property.
Speaking on AM800's The Morning Drive, Windsor Airport CEO Mark Galvin says back in 1928 it was opened and 95 years is a milestone worth celebrating.
"When it was first opened it was in the middle of nowhere, obviously it's not anymore. It's a great milestone for us and celebrating it today. It's been a tough little run the last two and a half years, so we want to take the opportunity to celebrate and thank everybody. Our staff, our stakeholders, our sponsors, our vendors, our contractors and the community," he said.
Galvin says it's a small event to mark the occasion, but after going through the COVID-19 pandemic they felt it appropriate to mark the importance of the airport.
"It was a difficult time, but we've turned the corner so let's all get together and celebrate this very tight knit air community that we have around the airport. When COVID happened, and we're trying to distance ourselves from it but it's something that happened. We don't want to dwell on it, but we want to look at the growth that's happening now, celebrate that and move forward."
He says their mission has always been to connect people safely to where they want to go, and that's what they try to do everyday.
Galvin says there's routes and destinations that people want to go to that can be successful from Windsor Airport, and they want to reverse the notion you have to drive to Detroit or Toronto for certain flights.
"People are very vocal today saying I want to go here, I want to go there. They're like little mini surveys all the time. When we have these conversations with either our existing or potential airline partners that's what I use. I say look, this is where this community of 350,000 to 400,000 people plus the millions on the other side of the border want to go," he said.
Galvin says with new flights to Halifax and Vancouver, and Orlando starting in January, more and more is becoming available right here at home for people.
Another positive for the airport according to Galvin is the amount of flyers that are using Windsor Airport from outside of the area, with a number of people from Michigan, but also Ohio, Illinois and Indiana driving to the region to fly.
- with files from AM800's The Morning Drive