Will the Pickering Airport Cost Tax Payers Billions of Dollars a Year?

The Pickering Airport is expected to be built in several phases, with the first phase to be the most expensive. A source close to one group interested in the full development has indicated that the project could cost $3.6 billion over 25+ years, with $2.1 billion needed to fund the first phase of the project, […]

Will building Pickering Airport help or hurt Toronto’s food security?

An agricultural lobby group wants to stop the soon to be built Pickering Airport and instead repurpose the land to agribusiness on the grounds that Toronto’s food security is at risk.  Is this just another attempt by a lobby group to hoodwink our politicians with a billion dollar land grab?  Or does Toronto have a […]

Toronto’s Urgent Generation WOW Challenge

By: Mark Brooks, Phil Lightstone Aviation in the Toronto region is facing an urgent environmental and economic challenge. First, thanks to the strengthening global economy and the Toronto regions booming growth, the number of long haul passenger flights to/from Toronto is expected to increase dramatically over the next two decades. Second, the global aviation transportation […]

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 […]