The Porter Air death watch is officially over
MARCUS GEE
Last updated on Saturday, Jul. 25, 2009 04:16AM EDT
mgee@globeandmail.com
Throughout their long struggle against common sense, opponents of the island airport always had what they thought was a surefire, slam-dunk argument. Even if the airport was not the blight on nature and crime against God that they said it was, no one was using it.
That claim has just gone up in smoke. Figures released by the Toronto Port Authority this week showed that a dramatic increase in fees-paying passengers has earned the TPA its first profit in 10 years of existence. More than 258,000 people departed from the airport in 2008, nearly double the 2007 figure. Add in arrivals, and around half a million people used the island, more than during its last heyday in the mid-eighties and a far cry from the dismal 30,000 a year earlier this decade.
And all because of a wise-guy raccoon. The growing popularity of Porter Airlines, the upstart company with the spokescoon as its mascot, has buried for good and all the idea that the airport would never attract enough users to justify its existence. It should bury the stubborn opposition of Mayor David Miller, too. Mr. Miller ran his first campaign for mayor on his opposition to a bridge linking the mainland to the airport. He won that battle - the bridge was cancelled - but lost the war when Porter took off regardless.
Porter's success has taken island-airport bashers aback. For years, they argued that the pathetic number of passengers who actually flew in and out of the island was proof that there was simply no demand for an island-based short-hop service. After all, several airlines, from City Express to Air Ontario to Air Canada Jazz, failed to make much of a go on the island despite the convenience of a runway eight minutes by cab from Bay Street. If they couldn't make it, nobody could, and the airport was a useless waste of good tarmac.
Then came Porter. Since entrepreneur Robert Deluce launched its first flight in 2006, the airline has soared. This spring it announced it is spending $45-million to build a new passenger terminal. It plans to increase its fleet to 18 planes by the end of this year. It is expanding its schedule, adding Boston as a destination in September on top of Ottawa, Montreal, Thunder Bay, Halifax, Mt. Tremblant, Quebec City, New York and Chicago. The VIA Rail strike could offer yet more growth opportunities. Porter is offering special discounts to rail passengers stranded by the walkout.
No one can say for sure whether Porter is a permanent fixture, given the failure rate for small airlines in Canada, but its growth has already proven beyond doubt the appeal of flying out of the island. It will become still more attractive with the new terminal and a new, bigger ferry being built by the TPA. There is even talk of a tunnel that would whisk visitors under the Western Gap.
Porter's growth is creating jobs and drawing investment to a city whose manufacturing base is deteriorating. Just as important, it is creating buzz. People love flying Porter, with its hip image and stress on service. They love the convenience of skipping traffic, not to mention the trudge through the endless halls of Pearson. Why spend an hour or two to reach a one-hour flight if you can zip down to the island instead?
Apart from a few grumpy neighbours complaining about airplane noise, in fact, just about everybody has come around to the merits of a thriving island airport. Everybody, that is, except Mr. Miller and his fellow naysayers. They have stood sullenly by as Porter has taken off and the airport has proven its worth. The mayor was notably and pointedly absent when Porter announced its new terminal, a major asset for the city he leads.
"Toronto's waterfront is a place for people to live, work and play and is not an appropriate place for a commercial airport," Mr. Miller said this spring. "It is impossible to realize our [waterfront] vision and accomplish all we are working toward with multiple daily commercial flights in the vicinity."
How, exactly, low-noise turboprop aircraft flying to the island can spoil this waterfront dream is a bit of a mystery. People downtown manage to live, work and play around the Gardiner, with its floods of noisy cars. They live, work and play around the railway yards and the bus terminal. This is a not Chatham. It's a big city. Seeing or hearing an airplane downtown should not come as a shock (and unless you're pretty close to the island, Porter's planes are not much seen or heard).
But the argument shows how muddled the case against the airport can be. Opponents used to say that it was wrong because it would never attract enough business. Now that it is thriving, they say it is wrong because it will attract too much.
Porter's success is a decisive argument for the island airport. Pre-Porter, it was implausible to argue that the airport was a threat to the city instead of a bonus. In the Porter era, it is simply incredible.