TORONTO – The CEO of Porter Airlines pitched his plan to expand the city’s island airport to Toronto’s Board of Trade Friday afternoon.
Porter Airlines has proposed flying Bombardier CS100 jets in and out of Billy Bishop Island Airport beginning in January 2016 and extending the runway by approximately 150 metres at either end.
“We’ve never been in a better position to fulfill our promises,” Porter Airlines CEO Robert Deluce told people gathered at Toronto’s Board of Trade.
He also claimed that by introducing jets to Porter’s services they would be able to create approximately 1000 jobs and add flights to Vancouver, Los Angeles and Miami.
The jets have been nicknamed “whisperjets” for the purportedly low level of noise they emit.
Brian Iler of CommunityAIR – an activist group opposing the airline’s expansion plans – suggested the Q400s propeller planes Porter uses now are already too loud for the surrounding neighbourhood.
He also suggested the current planes breach the Tripartite Agreement.
The expansion requires changes to that 1989 agreement between the city of Toronto, the Toronto Port Authority and the federal government, which now prohibits jets from landing at the airport due to noise concerns.
So before any jets can land at Billy Bishop Airport, Porter needs to get the city on board.
In May, council voted 29-15 to study the issues surrounding Porter’s expansion – including the jets’ noise levels.
For his part, the mayor has come out loudly in support of the airline’s expansion plan, saying soon after the plan was announced that he doesn’t “have a problem with it.”
“Overall, I don’t see this being a bad thing. I think it’s a good thing.”
Councillor Pam McConnell, whose ward includes the island airport, voted against the study.
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