Why low cost carriers and their passengers will love Pickering’s new airport.

Written by Mark Brooks and Phil Lightstone The new Pickering airport will be a state-of-the-art 21st century transportation hub, but which airlines are expected to call it home? The answer can be found in the new airport’s large passenger catchment area, the expected low operating costs for aircraft using it and the operational constraints at […]

Will Toronto miss out on aviations green revolution?

The green aviation revolution is coming, but will Toronto be at the forefront, or roadkill? US scheduled charter operator JetSuite, in which JetBlue Airways and Qatar Airways have stakes, is the launch customer for Zunum Aero’s hybrid-electric aircraft, which is scheduled for delivery beginning in 2022. When it is launch, Zunum will be the first […]

Pickering airports urgent timeline

A new proposed timeline for Pickering airport pushes another five years beyond a hoped-for 2028 opening.  What is going on and why are we delaying a badly needed piece of infrastructure? The time line, purposed by AECOM at a recent planning and information session in Durham region, pushed the opening date for Pickering’s new airport […]

The Building Enthusiasm for Pickering Airport

Why should anyone be enthusiastic about building a new airport?  After all, it’s just a slab of concrete in the middle of a field. No big deal, right? On April 30, 2018, in Durham region, a discussion group of urban planners, business executives and aviation experts laid out how big a deal a new airport really […]

Land Over Landings Billion dollar ask of the Canadian tax payer.

The recently released Land Over Landings ( LOL for short)  “AG study”, is billed as a pathway to prosperity.  But whose prosperity, why is LOL making this pitch, at what cost and who is paying?  The why is simple enough, LOL is a lobby group for residents and a handful of tenant farmers privileged to […]

Will the GTAA be hurt when Pickering airport opens?

The GTAA ( Greater Toronto Airports Authority) runs only one airport, Canada’s busiest, Toronto Pearson International airport. Pearson is the only jet airport inside Torontos passenger catchment area, and according to Standard & Poors credit rating service, it is a monopoly providing essential travel services to 17% of Canadas population. One in six Canadians must […]

Is creeping risk the new normal for congested Pearson Airport?

The Greater Toronto Airports Authority (GTAA) has a big problem. Pearson International airport, the only airport the GTAA operates, is expected to reach its maximum safe mixed aircraft capacity of 520,000 aircraft movements a year (as stated in its 2008 master plan) in about 6 years at its current 2% annual growth rate. The GTAA answer […]

Is Stouffville’s town council funding an airport misinformation war ?

The town of Whitchurch-Stouffville made the national news recently when a bizarre “mind-map” was found on the mayor’s office washroom wall. Another strange event didn’t make the news but left some residents equally annoyed and wondering if there is something in the water at city hall. When the official town sponsored monthly paper called “On […]

Is Pearson airport reducing safety to increase capacity?

In 2001 an American Airlines Airbus A300, Flight 587, departed New York’s John F. Kennedy International airport 1 minute 30 seconds behind a Boeing 747. It encountered the 747s wake turbulence and crashed. All 260 people onboard and 5 people on the ground died. Wake turbulence is extremely rough air created by jet powered aircraft. […]