Fort Smith Airport — Fort Smith, Canada

Fort Smith Airport, coded YSM, serves a historic town straddling the Northwest Territories and Alberta border along the Slave River, once the administrative capital of the entire Northwest Territories. YSM supports scheduled regional flights, forest fire suppression operations, and access to nearby Wood Buffalo National Park, Canada's largest national park and home to free-roaming bison herds and whooping crane nesting grounds. The airport's relatively long runway reflects Fort Smith's former importance as a transportation and government hub before Yellowknife assumed the territorial capital role. Today YSM remains vital for residents, park visitors, and researchers studying the region's unique boreal ecosystem.