Ottawa/Macdonald–Cartier International Airport or Macdonald–Cartier International Airport () is the main international airport serving Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, and its metropolitan area known as the National Capital Region. It is named after the Canadian statesmen and two of the "founding fathers of Canada", Sir John A. Macdonald and Sir George-Étienne Cartier. Located south of downtown Ottawa in the south end of the city, it is Canada's eighth-busiest airport, Ontario's second-busiest airport by airline passenger traffic, with 2,992,334 passengers in 2022. The airport was the home base for First Air. It is classified as an airport of entry by Nav Canada, and is staffed by the Canada Border Services Agency. It is one of eight Canadian airports that have United States border preclearance facilities. The airport was formerly a military base known as CFB Ottawa South/CFB Uplands, and is still home to the Royal Canadian Air Force's 412 Transport Squadron, which provides air transport for Canadian and foreign government officials. History On July 2, 1927, twelve P-1 airplanes under command of Major Thomas G. Lanphier, Air Corps, proceeded from Selfridge Field to Ottawa, acting as Special Escort for Colonel Charles Lindbergh, who was to attend at the opening of the Dominion Jubilee. First Lieutenant J. Thad Johnson, Air Corps, commanding 27th Pursuit Squadron, was killed in an unsuccessful parachute jump after a collision with another plane of formation in demonstration on arrival over Ottawa. There is now a street leading to the airport industrial section named after the aviator. The airport was opened at Uplands on a high plateau (then) south of Ottawa by the Ottawa Flying Club, which still operates from the field. During World War II, when it was known as Uplands, the airport hosted No. 2 Service Flying Training School for the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan, providing advanced pilot training in Harvard and Yale aircraft. In 1950, to allow for a southward expansion of the airport, the nearby farming community of Bowesville, settled from 1821, was expropriated. The last residents left and the village school was torn down in 1951. The current main airport terminal now stands on the site of the crossroads at the centre of the village. The road to the south of the airport still bears the name "Bowesville Road". During the 1950s, while the airport was still named Uplands and a joint-use civilian/military field, it was the busiest airport in Canada by takeoffs and