The airport site at Fort Chimo was located and surveyed on 12 July 1941 by a United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) team under Captain Elliott Roosevelt, operating by amphibious aircraft out of Gander, Newfoundland and Labrador.

Code-named Crystal I, Fort Chimo was founded on 10 October 1941 by a 12-man weather station and radio communications crew under Antarctic veteran and former Lieutenant Commander, Isaac Schlossbach.

[4] The initial mission of the Crystal sites was to provide long-range weather information to the combat forces then building up in the United Kingdom.

The United States presence at Crystal I was reduced to a skeleton weather squadron; which ended in 1945, and the facilities were turned over to the Canadian government.

The $14.9 million project included the expansion of the airport apron and the construction of a brand new 1,225 m2 (13,190 sq ft) terminal to replace the cramped building built in 1972.