Indus/Winters Aire Park Airport up for sale

INDUS, Alta. -

It's a unique property just south of the hamlet of Indus, Alta., and a short drive east of Calgary.

With a list price of $5.9 million, the 60-hectare property boasts two runways and 55 hangars.

Wayne Winters owns the Indus/Winters Aire Park Airport with his two brothers.

The land has been in the family since his grandfather purchased it to farm in 1917.

In 1971, Winters' father had it re-zoned and turned it into an airport.

Now, the family says it's time to sell and it went on the market in the fall of 2022 and has had many inquiries.

"The ideal vision is for somebody to develop hangar homes, to develop a nursing home and to develop a quality restaurant," Winters said.

"Because the city is moving out so quickly. I mean, the city will never be this far in my lifetime but it's coming, and being so close (to Calgary now), it's just so handy for people."

Winters says there are not many areas in southern Alberta or even Western Canada where a pilot can live next to a runway and fly any time they want.

"A lot of people prefer a grass (runway) to pavement, grassroots flying and to be able to have a hangar home along the runway, to be able to fly in their pajamas. That's kind of nice," he said.

Winters designed and built aircraft for years and operated a flying school at the airport.

He learned how to fly before his dad built the facility.

"He'd always wanted to fly but hadn't," Winters said.

"My wife and I had just got married and moved to Edmonton and I was right on the flight path for the municipal airport in Edmonton. It was driving me crazy because I'd always wanted to learn to fly, so I went over and signed up and started taking flying lessons and came back to announce it a few weekends later.

"I said, 'Hey Dad, guess what? I'm taking flying lessons,' and he said, 'Let me show you something', and he showed me he started to build the runways."

Chris Kirkman has had a hangar here for 32 years and is one of the longest-standing tenants.

He enjoys the flying community in Indus.

"Everybody chips in to help anybody who needs something done," he said.

"Everybody shares knowledge and I've learned a lot since I've been out here because I came out here knowing nothing, so it's easy to learn."

Kirkman says when he first came out to the property, there were a quarter of the people that there are now and that suited him fine because he prefers it a little quieter.

Winters says there are at least 100 aircraft on the property and it's a busy place on weekends.

His dream would be for the new owner to build a retirement facility on the property.

"The ideal buyer is somebody that can visualize what can be done with this property," he said.

"There are no nursing homes that I know anywhere in the world that cater to pilots and if a pilot can have a place to watch airplanes until the day they die, they will feel like they are in heaven before they leave."

Pieter Terblanche is a pilot and handles some of the maintenance at the airport along with mechanic duties for other aircraft owners.

He's been at the airport for eight years.

"The best part that people find about the airport is because it's out of the control zone, that you don't sit and wait to get clearance to take off," he said.

"You can just get in your plane, get ready and then off you go to wherever you want to."

Terblanche and other airplane owners are hopeful the buyer will keep the runways active.

"If we had a better idea of what the future of the airport was, then I think everyone would feel more at ease with it," he said.

"At the end of the day, we all just want to fly and we want to know where we're going to fly from, so if it's still going to be here or somewhere else, we'll just have to see."