Downsview Airport (ICAO: CYZD) is located in the North York district of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. An air field, then air force base, it has been a testing facility for Bombardier Aerospace since 1994. Bombardier has sold the facility and manufacturing plant and its future is uncertain.
Downsview Airport has its own fire service (Bombardier Aerospace Emergency Services) which covers airport operations (using two airport fire rescue vehicles) and plant operations (using two SUV emergency vehicles). Bombardier Emergency Services employees are cross-trained as firefighters, first responders and airport security.
Downsview Airfield opened in 1929 as general aviation airfield and one of two airports in the area. It was built by de Havilland Canada for testing aircraft at the plant at the site. The site was expanded during World War II by the Royal Canadian Air Force and renamed RCAF Station Downsview.
The Downsview Airport was developed in 1939 as an airfield next to an aircraft manufacturing plant operated by de Havilland Canada. In 1947, the Department of National Defence purchased property surrounding the airfield and expanded it, creating RCAF Station Downsview to provide an air base for Royal Canadian Air Force units. The base was renamed Canadian Forces Base Toronto (Downsview) in 1968 and retained this name until its closure in 1996.
Since 1998, the property has been administered by a civilian Crown corporation, Parc Downsview Park, which co-manages the airfield with Bombardier Aerospace (the successor to de Havilland Canada). In recent years the property has been undergoing various landscape usage plans and some redevelopment has taken place.
The airfield was used in recent years to host the 1984 and 2002 papal visits by Pope John Paul II, as well as to host the Molson Canadian Rocks for Toronto concert headlined by The Rolling Stones to revive the local economy after the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) outbreak in 2003.