Airports must plan for growth
PETERBOROUGH AIRPORT: Rotarians told Ontario airports urged to plan for when Pearson reaches capacity
With 90 million annual passengers expected by 2043 and Toronto Pearson International Airport expected to reach capacity at 65 million passengers a decade before that, Ontario airports must start planning together, an industry executive told local Rotarians on Monday.
“We need to start thinking of how to address the growth,” Greater Toronto Airports Authority (GTAA) engineering and capital infrastructure director Chris Sawicki told those gathered at Peterborough Golf and Country Club for the service club’s weekly meeting.
Those projections come from information gleaned from the first phase of an ongoing survey examining growth and what to expect over the next three decades, said Sawicki, who shared a brief history of the authority-operated airport its “story of growth.”
Toronto Pearson now facilitates $35.4 billion, or 5.6% of Ontario’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), Sawicki said. In 30 years, Ontario’s GDP is expected to be $1 trillion – meaning a demand for some 90 million passengers annually.
The “front door” to North America served more than 38.6 million passengers last year and expects more than 40 million this year, Sawicki said. In 1994, the Toronto Pearson served 21 million passengers. In 1974, 10.5 million and in 1964, 3.5 million.
Airports spur economic growth, he said, explaining how the airport has mirrored the expansion that has been seen in the Greater Toronto Area. “Airports are a reflection of their communities.”
Several factors have driven the growth, including that some 12.5 million people live within a three hours drive of the airport, Sawicki said. Pearson is “blessed” by geography, as it has the largest two-hour flight catchment area in all of North America, he added.
The director pointed out that other places in southern Ontario, including Peterborough, have made “smart investments” in their airports.
The authority is sharing what it is learning from the survey with others and has noted that a regional airport system could work to address issues, he said.
Asked what kind of role Peterborough Airport can play in Pearson’s future, Sawicki said it can play “whatever role it wants to play.” The authority has identified the “problem coming” in the form of rapid growth and is sounding the alarm.
“Let’s start talking about it and how everyone has a role,” he said.
Toronto Pearson employs some 40,000 - “a small city” - with the area around it second only to downtown Toronto as the province’s largest employer.
Its most recent expansion was completed in 2006. The airport now has five runways ranging from 9,000 to 11,000 feet in length. In 1940, just prior to the expansion that came with the jet era, the facility had a single 300-foot runway, Sawicki said.
Pearson is now also second only to New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport in the number of international destinations served.
“We’re now being recognized as a global, international hub,” the director said.
An area where Toronto Pearson can improve significantly is with its ground connections - key to the success of any airport, Sawicki said.
The recently-opened UP Express – the 25-minute rail service that departs every 15 minutes from Toronto’s Union Station to the airport – is a “major step forward ... but there is still much more that needs to be done on the ground transportation side.”
Sawicki, whose presentation was called “What is Toronto Pearson and what is the role it plays in the Ontario and Canadian economy,” has served in his current position, in which he oversees six divisions and is responsible for all major capital development projects at the airport, since 2009.
Previously, he was the authority’s general manager of project services, where he managed a $50 million annual capital restoration program and led a team of project managers, engineers and consultants, Rotary officials stated.