Pickering Airport (Transport Canada/GTAA, Proposed)

[lenaitch]

Agincourt yard is already half abandoned as is. I doubt CP needs a yard of equal size at this point.

I wouldn’t be surprised to see CP downsize agincourt in its existing footprint and develop excess lands. Moving it is pointless when they have so much excess land on the existing site to work with.

Paul mentioned upthread that the yard is too short to properly handle current train lengths.

I'm not sure how suitable or attractive the land would be for anything other than employment land, which pretty much surrounds it now.

 

[Admiral Beez]

Looks like Sydney will get a second airport before the GTA.

 

[Adjei]

What’s the need to build a new second airport when nearby airports in Hamilton and Waterloo are not seeing much growth ? If a second airport is needed to relieve pressure off Pearson, then develop those airports.

 

[micheal_can]

The GTA already has at least 2 airports already.

 

[Sandpit]

I think Pickering could/should be built as a mostly general aviation airport (to replace both Buttonville and Oshawa Executive Airport) with maybe some facilities for low-cost carriers. It’ll free up some land in Oshawa for housing.

 

[micheal_can]

I think Pickering could/should be built as a mostly general aviation airport (to replace both Buttonville and Oshawa Executive Airport) with maybe some facilities for low-cost carriers. It’ll free up some land in Oshawa for housing.

Free up housing?
Why not just build housing in the Pickering area then?

 

[Sandpit]

Free up housing?
Why not just build housing in the Pickering area then?

Oshawa airport seems to be in a better location (and already mostly surrounded by housing), and Pickering is closer for former Buttonville tenants/users than Peterborough.

 

[micheal_can]

Oshawa airport seems to be in a better location (and already mostly surrounded by housing), and Pickering is closer for former Buttonville tenants/users than Peterborough.

I asked why not put housing in Pickering, not why the airport should go wherever. If you think the issue is housing, building more housing north of the existing subdivisions in Pickering would be better than wasting money on an airport.

 

[Woodbridge_Heights]

What’s the need to build a new second airport when nearby airports in Hamilton and Waterloo are not seeing much growth ? If a second airport is needed to relieve pressure off Pearson, then develop those airports.

The issues with SWO airports (Hamilton, Waterloo, London) has been beaten to death. There is no airport with scheduled service between Toronto Pearson and Ottawa. A potential catchment area of ~3 million people depending on location.

 

[Midtown Hank]

There is another nearby airport in Caledon (at King Road & Hwy 10), just on the northern border of Brampton at the end of hwy 410.

 

[nfitz]

The issues with SWO airports (Hamilton, Waterloo, London) has been beaten to death. There is no airport with scheduled service between Toronto Pearson and Ottawa. A potential catchment area of ~3 million people depending on location.

There's certainly flights from the regional airports to Vancouver and Montreal. It's kind of odd that there's no flight to Ottawa at all. Presumably there simply isn't the demand.

But if they were to build another airport in North Pickering - who is to say that there'd be demand to get from there Ottawa? It's only about 320 km from there to Kanata - a 3.5 hour drive right now in Google maps. And the drive is only getting simpler over time as the 407/7 corridor becomes more expressway-like.

 

[micheal_can]

There's certainly flights from the regional airports to Vancouver and Montreal. It's kind of odd that there's no flight to Ottawa at all. Presumably there simply isn't the demand.

But if they were to build another airport in North Pickering - who is to say that there'd be demand to get from there Ottawa? It's only about 320 km from there to Kanata - a 3.5 hour drive right now in Google maps. And the drive is only getting simpler over time as the 407/7 corridor becomes more expressway-like.

And if the Via HSR gets built, then the plane is not that much more faster that it is even worth the hassle.

 

[kEiThZ]

There is no airport with scheduled service between Toronto Pearson and Ottawa. A potential catchment area of ~3 million people depending on location.

The catchment is most certainly not 3M. Most of that 3M is within reach of Pearson or Ottawa.

There is only one case for Pickering: consolidation of General Aviation in the GTA. The region does need to replace Buttonville, Oshawa, Markham and the GA parts of Billy Bishop. A well built GA airport here, with the rest of the land permanently committed to agriculture, reserve, etc. wouldn't be the worst thing. Some environmentalists will make the slippery slop argument, that we'll end up with a major commercial airport if we allow a GA facility. Given how much Billy Bishop struggles with a catchment that literally includes Bay Street, I find that argument to be a stretch. Pickering would struggle to become the discount reliever the way Hamilton is, if the GTAA is managing their fees. And rail improvements will open up more slots at Pearson over time, along with some rationalization of current schedules at that airport.

 

[nfitz]

There is only one case for Pickering: consolidation of General Aviation in the GTA.

Another case is air-freight as ADM does at Trudeau.

 

[kEiThZ]

Another case is air-freight as ADM does at Trudeau.

Air freight is kind of a poor case these days since a lot of freight is shipped in the belly of passenger airliners. There's some dedicated cargo ops at Hamilton. But I don't think the market will be big enough for a Pickering cargo operation, other than the occasional unscheduled delivery.