Airport is win-win-win at Pickering
For almost 45 years, myths and emotion have prevented the building of a Pickering airport to better serve the aviation needs of the Greater Toronto Area, Canada’s most populated region.
Now is the time for a Pickering airport. A year ago, the previous federal government hired former Durham College president Dr. Gary Polonsky to meet with interest groups on all sides and report on potential economic development opportunities around a future airport in Pickering.
The current government has the report and is expected to make it public very soon. It is sure to be controversial and spark debate, regardless what it says. Such is the depth of emotion between pro- and anti-airport forces dating back to 1972, when another Trudeau government expropriated 18,600 acres of land east of Toronto near what is now Hwy. 407 and Brock St.
Before we get a glimpse of Polonsky’s report, we know one thing: more than half the land — 10,200 acres — was already set aside in June of this year by Justin Trudeau’s government and added to the Rouge National Urban Park, which will be 50 times larger than Toronto’s High Park and protect nature and agriculture.
So, is there room for an airport, too? We believe so and envision something akin to the Arnold Palmer Regional Airport in Latrobe, a 945-acre facility that eases pressure on Pittsburgh’s International Airport, 65 kilometres away.
The reasons for a Pickering airport are unequivocal, especially when looking at the myths. Myth #1: Pearson International Airport can handle the increased air traffic.
The GTA population is expected to double over the next 30 years and air traffic to more than double. The Greater Toronto Airport Authority (GTAA) Master Plan says Pearson has not reached capacity and can handle 46 million to 54 million passengers per year with the construction of a new sixth runway, up from its current 35 million passengers.
But the GTAA is in a conflict of interest. Its latest annual report states it holds a debt of $6.7 billion, so it wants to hang onto its near-monopoly and maximize its number of passengers, regardless of environmental concerns or overall good to the region.
What the GTAA isn’t saying is that the only way to handle that many more passengers is to bring in more big airliners and squeeze out smaller aircraft. Myth #2: A new Pickering Airport would be harmful to the environment.
The opposite is true. Due to such heavy air traffic around Pearson, jetliners routinely slow down awaiting smaller, slower aircraft to land and take off. Large passenger jets burn up to three times more fuel with flaps out and gear down, creating enormous amounts of unnecessary green house gas (GHG) emissions.
With 1,100 flights at Pearson every day, saving even 100 litres of fuel per airliner will add up to millions of litres saved annually and a reduction of thousands of tonnes of GHG emissions.
There’s another positive impact on the environment: digitally enhanced procedures called RNP, or Required Navigational Performance.
RNPs for airliners are like slowing your car for a red light a few blocks ahead: you coast in and fuel consumption is optimized. WestJet Flight Operations estimates RNP approaches at Kelowna and Abbotsford airports are saving 555,000 litres of fuel annually. This translates into a reduction of 1,400 metric tonnes of GHG emissions. A new airport in Pickering will have RNP procedures, but far more importantly, it can enable Pearson to utilize RNPs by off-loading and streamlining its mismatched traffic congestion. Myth #3: Paving over farmland will cut into the local food supply chain.
A Pickering airport would be only 10 per cent the size of Pearson and require only several hundred acres.
Much of the leased farming on these Pickering lands is corn used for ethanol production. And an acre of corn ethanol produces1,500 to 2,000 litres, so aircraft fuel savings alone could release thousands of acres of Pickering farmland for other types of crops and livestock.
A Pickering airport can achieve a triple bottom line: economic benefit, environmental stewardship and local community value with much-needed new infrastructure. Now is the time for a Pickering airport and the federal government should act on the opportunity.