Airline pitches 18-minute flights to Toronto

Looking to find backer for one-way hops from Waterloo Region

BRESLAU — Eighteen minutes. That’s how long it will take commuters to fly from Waterloo Region to downtown Toronto if weekday flights from Greater Toronto Airways become a reality.

An eight-passenger plane can fly the 80 kilometres from Breslau, east of Kitchener, to Billy Bishop island airport in 18 minutes, with a short tunnel walk or ferry ride to the mainland to follow.

And when might this $100 oneway flight, below Pearson air space, be available?

“As soon as I get some commitments from bigger companies,” Greater Toronto Airways president Chris Nowrouzi said in a phone interview from Toronto on Tuesday.

“We’re looking at the big tech companies and the insurance companies and all the financial companies that are out there. The guys that have the money.”

Corporate subscriptions may be the key to making the Toronto-toWaterloo corridor route fly. Local companies had a look at one of the 10-seater planes at Region of Waterloo International Airport a few weeks ago. Nowrouzi will soon meet them one-on-one to see if deals can be struck.

“If I get a company who says, ‘Hey, I’ll guarantee your minimum costs,’ I’ll start it next week,” Nowrouzi said. “We can start literally any day. It all has to do with negotiations or talks that we’re about to have in the next two weeks.”

Last fall, Greater Toronto Airways started a Toronto-to-Niagara-on-the-Lake loop with 12-minute flights for $85 each way.

“It’s the shortest flight in North America, right now,” Nowrouzi said.

“The risk factor with that was basically half the risk factor of a Kitchener-Waterloo loop. So we’re looking at either somehow getting it subsidized or getting commitments from companies.”

Does getting it subsidized means asking for money from regional government?

“We haven’t approached anyone, but yes,” he said.

Regional Coun. Tom Galloway said nothing is yet in place between the airline and the local airport. But he said it is encouraging that Breslau-Toronto flights, with three daily return loops during the week, seem close to happening.

“We don’t know if council will have to make any decisions or not,” Galloway said on Tuesday. “If they’re just going to come and go and have regular flights, that’s certainly fine with us. We look forward to them operating from our airport.”

But financial commitments from companies appear to be required first by Greater Toronto Airways.

“I guess their ‘go or no go’ decision is around the business community support,” said Chris Wood, general manager of the Breslau airport. “So we’re working with them to try and talk to the right people in the community. There’s no agreement, per se, signed. But we’re absolutely working with them to try to make it happen.”

But some features of the proposed Waterloo Region to Toronto loop, including the $100 one-way fare, remain up in the air.

“Numbers are not finalized,” Nowrouzi said. “That could vary with the number of commitments we get. If we get a high number, that price comes down. If we get a low number, the price goes up.”