The airport was also used as a base for test flights of fighter aircraft being built at the nearby Canadian Car and Foundry factory.

Three runways were listed as follows:[9] A number of airlines served the airport with scheduled passenger jet service in the past from the late 1960s to the early 2000s.

These air carriers along with the respective jetliner types they operated from the airfield are as follows: According to various Official Airline Guide (OAG) editions as well as airline timetables, the majority of jet service operated by Canadian-based air carriers was nonstop or direct to Toronto and Winnipeg.

U.S.-based North Central Airlines operated nonstop flights to Duluth with continuing no change of plane jet service to Chicago–O'Hare while successor Republic Airlines also flew nonstop to Duluth with continuing no change of plane jet service to Minneapolis/St.

United Express served Chicago O'Hare International Airport from Thunder Bay from February 2013 to April 2014 using the Bombardier CRJ-200.

Thunder Bay Transit bus route 14 Arthur serves the airport terminal and the nearby Aviation Centre of Excellence.

[citation needed] The largest aircraft to land in Thunder Bay is the Antonov AN-124 which made four cargo trips direct from Austria between August 2017 and April 2018 with rail car parts for Bombardier.

On 6 April 2009, Yavuz Berke, a 31-year-old Turkish-born Canadian student at the Aviation Centre of Excellence at Confederation College, stole its Cessna 172 at Thunder Bay airport and went for a joy ride.