JET SETTING
TORONTO TO WATERLOO IN 18 MINUTES PLANNED FROM BILLY BISHOP AIRPORT.
People who travel along the Kitchener-Waterloo-Toronto corridor may soon see an alternative to the often-chaotic commute on the highway.
Greater Toronto Airways, which initiated air service between downtown Toronto and Niagara- on- the- Lake last September with flights that take roughly 12 minutes — about the same amount of time it takes to transfer from the TTC to a GO train at Union Station — plans to launch a new route that will connect the two ends of Canada’s largest tech corridor.
Its first flight, with an eight- seat multi- engine aircraft, is expected to happen in early June. It will take 18 minutes to fly the 44 nautical miles, or 81 km, between Toronto’s Billy Bishop Airport and Region of Waterloo International Airport in Breslau ( about a 20- minute drive from central K-W).
“There’s a big population of people going back and forth,” says GTA’s president and chief executive Chris Nowrouzi. “I think there’s a lot of people wasting a lot of time and a lot of corporations wasting a lot of money. I think it’s a no-brainer.”
Profitability for his company along this route is contingent on two important conditions. Nowrouzi needs to fill half the plane on each leg to break even. And he will need 20 companies to commit to monthly corporate packages to buffer operating expenses.
Nowrouzi, GTA’s co-owner along with chief operating officer David Nissan, pitched several major firms in the region at a business advisory committee meeting in Waterloo earlier this month. Those companies include BlackBerry, Home Hardware, Toyota, Manulife Financial and Sun Life Financial. University of Guelph and University of Waterloo were also present.
His next step is to meet one- on- one with each company; he’s confident many will sign up. “It’s a matter of putting pen to paper for some of the companies.”
GTA is offering a threetiered corporate membership structure, with flat fees from $ 4,450 to $ 6,450 per month, along with additional fees for every person added to the fly list. There are also restrictions on how many people can be booked to travel at any given time.
The public would pay around $ 100 each way, but the final decision on cost depends on the commitments GTA gets from the corporate sector. Those prices may be out of the range of many early to mid- range startups, and that has Nowrouzi primarily targeting larger firms with satellite offices in Kitchener- Waterloo whose employees either go to Toronto for meetings or to connect to other destinations.
There are significant cost savings with private ground transportation or Ontario’s public GO Transit service. More than 21,000 riders on average board the train on the Kitchener GO line on weekdays, according to the latest figures. There are four direct early- morning trains to Toronto’s Union station and four afternoon departures in the reverse direction. A one-way trip between Kitchener and Union Station takes about two hours, at a cost of $17.20.
There is GO bus service, but a connection is required, sometimes making the trip as long as three hours.
Metrolinx, the government agency that operates GO trains and buses, says it is “committed to providing Kitchener with 30- minute peak-period service to Union Station in the morning and back in the afternoon” within the next 10 years.
In a private vehicle, the 115 km can, in theory, take 90 minutes, but traffic along Highway 401 can easily push the drive past two hours.
VIA Rail runs trains between Kitchener and Toronto that take 90 minutes, with prices that vary according to class; basic economy is $ 34 one way.
If all goes well, Nowrouzi hopes to double service from six to 12 flights on weekdays. Currently, scheduled service from Waterloo to Toronto would run at 8 a.m .,11:30 a.m ., and 5 p.m. Monday to Friday, and at 10 a.m., 3 p.m. and 6 p.m. in the opposite direction.
Last summer Nowrouzi indicated he’d initiate service on the Toronto-Waterloo route in early 2017, weeks after the first flight to Niagara. Route launch delays are common in the airline industry, says consultant Robert Kokonis.
“New airlines make those promises all the time.”
Chris Wood, general manager of Waterloo regional airport, says that “all indications to us are that they are intending to do it. We’re perfectly willing and happy to have them do it at any time.”
Air service from Waterloo Regional is relatively thin for business travellers. West Jet flies to Calgary and seasonally to Florida. Sunwing Airlines flies in the winter to Dominican Republic. American Airlines once offered service to Chicago, but that was suspended in October. American and WestJet wouldn’t comment on plans to fly from Waterloo.
Porter Airlines, which also operates from Billy Bishop, said it has no intentions to compete on the route with GTA.