# Hay River / Merlyn Carter Airport (YHY)

> Hay River, CA · IATA: YHY · ICAO: CYHY · Medium Airport · Cargo Hub

## Quick Facts

| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| IATA | `YHY` |
| ICAO | `CYHY` |
| City | Hay River |
| Country | CA |
| Type | Medium Airport |
| Elevation | 165 m |
| Cargo | ✅ |
| GPS | 60.83970, -115.78300 |

## Description

The freight that matters at Hay River mostly does not fly. The town on the south shore of Great Slave Lake is where cargo from the south transfers to the Marine Transportation Services barges serving the Mackenzie River communities and the western Arctic, and Hay River / Merlyn Carter Airport (YHY/CYHY), about 3 km north of town, supports that system rather than replacing it. Buffalo Airways keeps one of its three bases here alongside Yellowknife and Red Deer, flying cargo charters and its Buffalo Air Express courier product into remote northern settlements. The surface chain is under strain: the CN rail line between Enterprise and Hay River was damaged by the 2023 wildfires and the railway decided in 2024 not to rebuild it, pushing the transfer function onto trucks and a cargo facility at Enterprise while the territorial government contests the discontinuance, and barge seasons have become less predictable as water levels fall. Air cargo covers only the light, urgent and perishable end of that gap; customs falls to the Canada Border Services Agency, though traffic is almost entirely domestic. For volume, forwarders route through Yellowknife (YZF), roughly 470 road kilometres to the north-east, or Edmonton (YEG) about 1,100 km to the south.

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*Freight Academy — Airport Profile: [https://www.freight-academy.com/en/information/airports/hay-river-merlyn-carter-airport-yhy](https://www.freight-academy.com/en/information/airports/hay-river-merlyn-carter-airport-yhy)*

*Markdown mirror: [https://www.freight-academy.com/api/md/airports/en/hay-river-merlyn-carter-airport-yhy](https://www.freight-academy.com/api/md/airports/en/hay-river-merlyn-carter-airport-yhy)*

*LLM-Summary (JSON): https://www.freight-academy.com/api/v1/airports/hay-river-merlyn-carter-airport-yhy/llm-summary*