The official organizational date of the Moncton Flying Club coincides with the date of the first Air Pageant, held July 1, 1929, to raise money for the airport. A group of citizens had decided that Moncton should be an air center of the Maritimes. The site for the first airport in Moncton was chosen, and work was started in April 1929. However, hard times followed shortly after the airport was complete with the onset of the Great Depression, and all flight activity virtually ceased. It was not until the late 1930s that flight training began again at the Moncton Flying Club. By the end of 1939, the Flying Club was officially incorporated and had a fleet of two privately owned planes.