Development plan with new Airport Wins vote 20 to 6 at Durham Region

  May 17th, 2023, a landslide vote in the Durham Region council chambers approves of the new Pickering airport’s important role in the region’s economic development. The new airport is part of the region’s Official Plan, a plan that is the culmination of years of work completed through the Envision Durham process, the Municipal Comprehensive Review of Durham’s […]

Pickering Airport Passenger Routes Part 1

The Pickering Airport Advantage- Location, Location, Location!   Airlines are in the business of operating routes between cities. Airports are the gateways between these cities.  Profit and customer satisfaction are an airline’s goals.   Airlines around the world are constantly looking to add profitable new destinations to their route networks to satisfy customer demand. Both the […]

Farming and The Full Economic Development of the Federal Pickering Lands

  By Ted Nickerson At the recent City of Pickering Council meeting regarding the motion to reverse the City’s support for an airport on the Pickering lands, I was struck by one presenter’s comments. , A clearly pro-farming, anti-airport advocate, stated their firm opposition to vertical farming or greenhouses on the lands.  The comments were […]

What is Pickering Airport’s Employment Zone?

  An AEZ (Airport Employment Zone), also called an Airport Economic Zone, or an Advanced Enterprise Zone can be defined as: A centre of urban and regional economic growth, which relies on the speed and flow of the economy of an airport. For industry, an AEZ enables a global connection to customers, employees, and logistics. […]

Can a Green Fee save Pearson Airport and surrounding businesses from Mayhem?

  Toronto Pearson Airport and the economic zone it creates is in trouble. Thanks to regional population growth, roadside and airside congestion at the airport is expected to become commonplace. The mayhem of long line ups, delays, and staff shortages observed during the Christmas travel timeframe of 2022 will become a weekly event. Along with […]

Monday Night BANANA Politics in Pickering

  Did the April 24th, 2023 Pickering City council meeting go absolutely BANANAs (Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anyone) over a motion playing municipal politics with a federally mandated new airport? While the city has little control over if and when the airport is built, that did not stop two local councilors from putting forth […]

A Letter from the President of the Buttonville Flying Club.

Pickering Airport is One Step Closer to Reality By: David Sprague, President Buttonville Flying Club April 22, 2023 Toronto: Recently, members of the Buttonville Flying Club attended a series of publicly held municipal planning meetings.  On behalf of the 200 plus members of the Buttonville Flying Club, part of the Canadian Owners and Pilots Association, […]

Final Pickering Airport Capacity Study Airborne Again!

The need for a new airport in Pickering is back under the magnifying glass of Transport Canada in what could be its final needs assessment. Launched, then withdrawn, the study is now back on. Nothing it seems can stop the final Pickering airport study from getting airborne. The Minister of Transport himself, the Honourable Omar […]

Can Aristotle help us understand recent Pickering Airport media coverage?

The new Pickering airport is a critical part of Canada’s future economic and aviation infrastructure.  Yet the stories recently appearing in our local press rarely mention this. They do not quote aviation or business organizations and rarely touch on the benefits of the airport.  Instead, they are covering the topic with a political focus. Why […]

Why do Advanced Industries Locate Near Airports?

By Mark Brooks Toronto’s Lester B. Pearson airport is the center of an advanced industrial zone that is at the forefront of the reindustrialization of Canada. The PEZ (Pearson Economic Zone) is now Canada’s second largest employment zone, employing 400,000 people and contributing $53 billion to Ontario’s economy. But why, even with land prices soaring, […]