Calgary Hosts Snowbirds' Final CT-114 Tutor Flight at 113th Grey Cup

A Grey Cup flypast in Calgary will double as a national farewell.

The Canadian Football League has announced that the Canadian Forces Snowbirds’ final performance with the CT-114 Tutor fleet will take place at the 113th Grey Cup, scheduled for Nov. 15 at McMahon Stadium in Calgary. For the Moose Jaw, Sask.-based team, it will close a 55-year era with the aircraft it has flown since 1971.

A Grey Cup farewell

The choice of stage is fitting for a team that has crossed into Canadian football’s biggest weekend before. The Snowbirds previously performed at the 101st, 106th and 109th Grey Cup championships.

This year’s appearance carries a different weight. The CT-114 Tutor fleet is being retired after the 2026 season, and the Grey Cup performance is now set to become the final public goodbye for the aircraft in Snowbirds service.

Major-General Denis O’Reilly, deputy commander of the Royal Canadian Air Force, framed the moment as both celebration and tribute.

“For 55 years, the Canadian Forces Snowbirds have inspired communities from coast to coast to coast through extraordinary skill, teamwork and professionalism,” O’Reilly said in the CFL announcement. “As we celebrate this tremendous milestone and bid farewell to the CT-114 Tutor, we honour the generations of pilots, technicians support staff and families whose dedication have made the Snowbirds a symbol of Canadian excellence.”

Moose Jaw team, national stage

The Snowbirds are based in Moose Jaw, Sask., a detail that has long tied the team’s national profile to a prairie home base. Their final Tutor performance will happen not in Saskatchewan, but before a Grey Cup crowd in Calgary, bringing together two institutions with deep Canadian recognition.

The CFL commissioner said the league was proud to host the farewell.

“With deep respect and gratitude, we proudly welcome the final flight of the iconic Canadian Forces Snowbirds to Canada’s biggest championship celebration,” the commissioner said. “We are honoured to help mark this historic moment and pay tribute to a partnership built on shared values, shared history and an enduring pride in Canada.”

The final Tutor flight had previously been scheduled for Oct. 10 and 11 at an air show in Sacramento, Calif. The CFL announcement shifts the ceremonial endpoint to Calgary and to a championship setting the Snowbirds have visited several times before.

End of the Tutor era

The Snowbirds have performed with CT-114 Tutor aircraft since 1971. That long run has made the Tutor inseparable from the team’s public identity, and the Calgary performance is being presented as the close of that chapter.

O’Reilly also pointed to what comes next.

“While we reflect proudly on the Tutor’s remarkable legacy, we also look ahead with confidence to the next chapter of Canada’s national demonstration team and the aircraft that will carry that tradition into the future,” he said.

The CT-157 Siskin II has been selected to replace the CT-114 Tutor jets. The transition will not be immediate for audiences: the Snowbirds will be grounded during the aircraft changeover into the 2030s.

A pause before renewal

That grounding means the Grey Cup performance is not only a farewell to an aircraft, but also the beginning of a pause for one of Canada’s best-known aerial demonstration teams.

For fans in Calgary, the Nov. 15 championship will offer more than football. It will be a chance to see the Snowbirds mark the end of 55 years with the Tutor fleet, before the team steps away from the skies and prepares for its next aircraft era.

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