Councillors defer decision on Porter Airlines expansion

TORONTO – The city’s executive committee has grounded Porter Airlines’ hopes to expand operations at Billy Bishop Airport, until at least February.

The executive committee had been tasked Thursday with choosing whether or not to quash the idea or send it to city council for a full vote.

Instead, at the behest of deputy mayor Norm Kelly, the committee chose to defer the motion until the new year.

While the majority of councillors on the executive committee supported the deferral, Mayor Rob Ford spoke in favour of expansion at the airport.

Councillor Giorgio Mammoliti, though supporting the deferral, said he wasn’t happy with “yet another delay” and suggested there was “much going on behind the scenes that will clearly point to a strategical, political attempt at creating an issue for the next election.”

Porter Airlines had hoped to land jets at the island airport; a plan that would require extending the runway and amending the Tripartite Agreement to allow the large planes.

Before changing the agreement however, the city had demanded a test to ensure the Bombardier CS-100 jets, dubbed “whisper jets” for being quieter than most jets, according to Porter, would live up to the nickname.

“It’s time for the parties, including the Toronto Port Authority, the federal government and the city to sit and examine some solutions. There are solutions. It’s not that complicated.”

The city staff report however claims the planes’ noise-levels remains undetermined.

“The available flight test data, as provided by Bombardier to the City’s aviation consultants on November 4 and on November 26, 2013, is insufficient to confirm whether the proposed jet aircraft will meet the noise guidelines set out in the Tripartite Agreement.”