point by the United States and Canada as RCAF Frobisher Bay Station. The base was closed in 1963 and converted into a civilian airport. Civilian use Since the 1950s, Frobisher Bay had earned a reputation as a technical stop for airlines flying the North Atlantic. Crews departing westward from Prestwick or Shannon in those years preferred to route via Iceland (or the Azores) to Gander, thence to New York City or elsewhere. Weather, however, could dictate a northerly course, which is when Frobisher Bay came into its own. In 1959, Pan American even had a base there and on at least two occasions had to change engines on Douglas DC-7Cs at Frobisher Bay. With the introduction of the intercontinental Boeing 707 and Douglas DC-8, fewer airlines stopped at Iqaluit. The place remained prominent as a regional airport, continued in its strategic role of sustaining the Distant Early Warning Line (DEW), supported the occasional military exercise or scientific expedition, and was a key stopover on the North Atlantic ferry route. Through the 1960s, Nordair was the main airline serving Frobisher Bay from Montreal, to the south. Douglas DC-4s operated into the 1970s and Lockheed Super Constellations between 1964 and 1969. In 1968, Nordair introduced the Boeing 737-200 on the Frobisher Bay run. At the same time, Bradley Air Services had been expanding. By the 1970s, the company's fleet of de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otters and Douglas DC-3s was serving many small Arctic communities from YFB, carrying passengers, mail, groceries, and other essentials. Bradley became known as First Air in 1973 and soon added BAe 748s. In the 1980s, Canada's airline industry was in transition, with Air Canada and Canadian Airlines rapidly buying up regional operators. Air Canada acquired Nordair in 1977, and then sold it in 1984 to Canadian Airlines. Jet service to Iqaluit Airport continued, but under the Canadian North banner, which was, after the buyout of Canadian Airlines by Air Canada, to continue operations as an independent airline, jointly owned by the Inuit of the Northwest Territories and Nunavut. Between 1985 and 1988, First Air added four Boeing 727s to link Montreal and Ottawa with Iqaluit. Meanwhile, Canadian Airlines failed, and was taken over by Air Canada in 2000. In 1995, First Air purchased the small Yellowknife-based carrier, Ptarmigan Airways; then, in 1997, Northwest Territorial Airways (NWT Air), Air Canada's Yellowknife subsidiary. In acquiring NWT, First Air obtained