Waterloo Air Traffic Control Tower

In 2023 a total of 142,000 aircraft movements were recorded by the Control Tower, making it the 8th busiest airport by aircraft movements. The bulk of aircraft are light recreational and training aircraft. With the longest runway being 7000 feet, the airport easily accommodates an increasing number of business class executive jets basing at the airport, and the scheduled Westjet, Sunwing and Flair airlines Boeing 737 traffic.

While listening to the Waterloo Control Tower feed, you may not hear constant transmissions. During poor weather, high winds, and during the winter months, traffic volumes will decline.  When the visibility is less than 3 miles, or when there is a cloud based ceiling of less than 1000 feet, recreational and training aircraft flights will be limited. Traditionally, January and February record the lowest traffic volumes, however, during the summer, complete frequency saturation is not uncommon.

Below is an aerial map that may help to visualize the flow of traffic. The yellow dots depict the path of an aircraft flying a typical left hand circuit to Runway 26 (all turns within the circuit are to the left). Each leg of the circuit has a label. These labels, ‘left downwind’, ‘left base’ etc. are routinely heard as aircraft report their position, and controllers instruct aircraft how to approach the airport for landing . There is also a right hand circuit for runway 26 (not labeled), and identical patterns when other runways are in use.