Pickering Airport Lands

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Template:Future airport

Pickering Airport
Summary
Airport typePublic
OperatorGreater Toronto Airports Authority (GTAA)
LocationPickering, Ontario
Elevation AMSLTBD ft / TBD m
CoordinatesTBD
Runways
Direction Length Surface
ft m
10L/28R[1] 10,000 3,048 TBD
15/33 8,500 2,591 TBD
10R/28L 10,000 3,048 TBD

Pickering Airport is a proposed international airport for Pickering, Ontario, Canada, east of Toronto. The original plans for the airport were developed during the 1970s; the current draft plan from the Greater Toronto Airports Authority (GTAA) calls for construction in a different location on the property to begin in 2010, subject to Canadian federal government approval.

The GTAA's draft plan, released in November 2004, estimates that the airport will cost $2 billion. The federal government expects to make its final decision in 2009 at the earliest, after an environmental assessment and a review of the costs and benefits of the GTAA's proposal. The GTAA has assumed it will be selected as constructor and operator and hopes to open the airport in 2012, initially serving general aviation but eventually including scheduled passenger service, to relieve congestion at Lester B. Pearson International Airport west of Toronto. A technical analysis of the changes proposed by the GTAA's draft plan was expected from the federal government in 2005. A public notice was published in several newspapers on September 28, 2005 outlining zoning regulations.

Site

Green Space Preserve (Pickering Airport Lands)

The proposed airport would be located in the north west corner of the City of Pickering, Ontario. Parts of the airport would spill over into the town of Markham and township of Uxbridge, Ontario. The closest community is Claremont, Ontario (within Pickering), a suburban village of around 1,000 residents located just to the NE of the airport lands.

History

In 1972, the federal government (which then owned and operated all major Canadian airports) expropriated 18,600 acres (75 km²) of farmland for the project. The Pickering project was postponed due to opposition by community activists and environmentalists. However, the government did not resell the Pickering land to its original owners, maintaining the ability to revive the project in the future. To this day, the original owners have continued to lease the land from the government. A similar major land expropriation took place north of Montreal for the Montréal-Mirabel International Airport, which opened in 1975, the same year that the Pickering project was postponed.

Transport Canada revived plans for the Pickering Airport in 2001 and the federal government has revived the land's designation as an airport site citing a number of reasons such as:

  • Toronto Pearson International Airport (CYYZ) will be unable to indefinitely be the sole provider for the bulk of Toronto's commercial air traffic, although critics argue Hamilton International Airport has more than enough capacity to accommodate any future traffic.
  • Toronto City Centre Airport (CYTZ) is limited to smaller light jets and propeller planes and is hampered by public opposition to increased jet traffic, as well as the absence of a fixed link to the city core and surrounding transportation architecture. However, those opposed to the plan note that Porter Airlines has recently won the right to fly out of CYTZ, and state that Buttonville, Brampton, and Oshawa Airports are happy to accommodate light jets and propeller planes.
  • Toronto/Buttonville Municipal Airport (CYKZ) is also limited to smaller commuter aircraft and currently serves mostly privately based business travel. Upgrading the airport for longer runaways is unachievable because of urbanization around the airport. The GTAA is hoping this airport might be closed if Pickering is approved, but the Sifton family has made it public that they are not closing the airport.
  • Hamilton/John C. Munro International Airport (CYHM) is being claimed by the GTAA as too far from the city of Toronto core to be practical as a major hub for travellers, although critics point out that reliever airports for Boston, Massachusetts (T.F. Green State Airport in Providence, Rhode Island and Manchester-Boston Regional Airport in Manchester, New Hampshire) are further from the Boston city centre than Munro Airport is from the Toronto city centre, and are utilized effectively.

Controversy

Critics have pointed to the expansion being undertaken at Toronto Pearson International Airport, charging that the current Pearson project is overzealous as well as lessening any need for the new Pickering Airport. The GTAA maintains that Toronto Pearson will reach capacity in the mid-2020s.

Once again, there is significant community opposition to the airport, including the umbrella group V.O.C.A.L. (Voters Organized to Cancel the Airport Lands, www.vocalvoice.ca). There is also significant opposition to the airport within the general aviation community, since the construction of the Pickering Airport will automatically cause the closure of the Markham Airport, which is located partly on the airport lands, and may cause the closure of Buttonville as well.

Although the GTAA has also stated that the expansion would likely result in a decision to close the Oshawa Airport as well, they have no authority to do so, since Oshawa Airport is actually outside of the GTAA's jurisdiction, being owned by the City of Oshawa itself. Only Transport Canada, or the city of Oshawa in conjunction with Transport Canada, would have the authority to order the closure of the airport, a situation which may or may not occur, and would not happen without significant opposition from local General Aviation pilots, and the Canadian Owners and Pilots Association. GTAA's anticipation of Oshawa's closure is based on its belief that it is operationally and physically constrained and is therefore unsuitable as a Pearson reliever. Critics argue that the GTAA fails to recognize the value of Oshawa and other similar airports as local airports, providing facilities for training and General Aviation flights, functions that the proposed Pickering airport would not serve well.

The GTAA's plan to mix the displaced General Aviation traffic with increased heavy passenger jet traffic also concerns many small aircraft pilots who would have no choice but to use the new airport, as larger airports tend to be less GA friendly, and more difficult for student pilot training.

The Pickering Airport could also affect the future of the Toronto City Centre Airport and to a lesser degree Hamilton Airport more than 100 km to the southwest.

Plans for a Pickering airport have also received opposition from Transport 2000 Canada, who argue that a high-speed rail service in the existing Québec City-Windsor Corridor would eliminate the need for an expensive new airport (since a large number of current and anticipated air travellers in the GTA would be served by such a service), whilst causing significantly less air pollution, community disruption, and loss of farmland. Proponents of high-speed rail expansion point to its success in Europe, where services such as ICE, TGV, Thalys, and Eurostar have drastically reduced the need for some short-haul (less than 3-hour) air routes.

See also

External links

Notes

  1. ^ Runway 10L/28R & 15/33 proposed for 2012. Runway 10R/28L proposed for 2032. Data obtained from "Pickering Airport Draft Plan Report" 3MB PDF or 12MB PDF

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