OTTAWA WON'T RECONSIDER EXPANSION OF BILLY BISHOP AIRPORT
Nov 27, 2015
By Bob Komsic
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Saying it’s a quality of life issue for Torontonians who want a greater say in the development of their waterfront, the federal transport minister says he won’t change his mind.
Marc Garneau says the Liberals will keep their election promise not to renegotiate the three-party agreement among Ottawa, the city of Toronto and PortsToronto and allow the extension of the runway at Toronto island airport.
Porter Airlines has been pushing for expansion in order to be allowed to fly jets out of Billy Bishop Airport.
The decision comes before various studies, including an environmental assessment of the proposal, have been completed.
PortsToronto says it’s paying for the studies which are nearly done with a plan to pass them along to the city early next year.
The statement from the federal government may also force Porter to cancel its conditional order for up to 30 of Bombardier’s CSeries jets.
While Porter Airlines has not talked about Plan B, one airline consultant says another option for Porter may be to fly the jets out of Pearson International.