WATCH: Porter airlines proposes extending runways longer than original plan. Carey Marsden reports.
TORONTO – The majority of Torontonians support landing jets at the island airport according to a new poll released by Ipsos-Reid.
The poll was conducted for the Toronto Port Authority which conducts an annual survey of Torontonians attitudes towards the island airport.
Ipsos-Reid surveyed 700 adults living in Toronto including 300 who lived south of Queen Street and has margin of error of +/- 3.7 percentage points, 19 times out of 20. According to the poll, 60 per cent of Torontonians and 50 per cent of those living downtown south of Queen Street support flying jets in and out of Billy Bishop Airport.
The poll results come on the same day the city launched consultations to gauge the public sentiment on Porter Airlines’ expansion plans for the Billy Bishop Airport.
And on Tuesday, the airline announced a second proposal that would see the runway extended 200 metres on each side – 32 metres longer than the airlines original April plan.
Before the runway can be extended or jets can be flown however the municipal government, the Canadian government and the Toronto Port Authority must agree to change the 1983 Tripartite Agreement which prohibited jets from landing at the airport.
The plan though has sparked a vocal opposition from NoJetsTO – a community organized anti-expansion group.
“The TPA’s annual survey is manipulative as ever; it’s not an objective view of what Torontonians think,” Anshul Kapoor, chair of NoJetsTO said.
WATCH: Anshul Kapor, spokesperson for No Jets TO, explains why his group and the citizens who support it are fighting against Porter’s intended expansion of the runway at Billy Bishop airport
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