Ready for a takeoff?

Sometimes, life’s opportunities seem so blindingly obvious that, when you spot one, you worry that you’ve missed something everyone else has understood.

Take Porter Airlines—the one with the racoon, and ever-present seat sales—and its plan to add 10 new Bombardier Q100 jets to its inventory, with an equally ambitious plan to serve more southern destinations. There are just two small problems. First, the runway at Billy Bishop Airport, the Toronto Island flight centre that is Porter’s home base, is about 336 metres too short to accommodate the planes: landfill would have to be added to make the runways long enough. And second, Porter signed an agreement with the federal government and the City of Toronto under which it undertook never to use jet planes—just like the very ones it is now proposing to use. At press time, a majority of Toronto City councillors were leaning against amending the agreement.

Now Porter isn’t dumb enough to commit itself to buy 10 pricey jets without having anywhere to fly them. So, the purchase of the jets is conditional. But it dearly wants to expand, so it has to have some sort of backup plan in mind if the Toronto councillors stick with their present inclination. In other words, it has to be considering some airport close to Toronto from which it can operate its new jets to its heart’s content, and from which it can shuttle passengers back and forth to Billy Bishop in its existing turboprop fleet.

Some place close…like the County? Why not? Waterloo region has already mooted the idea that it could become a Porter hub, but a new direct service from Waterloo to Chicago is operating at a loss. And Waterloo is farther away from New York, Boston, Washington and all those juicy new Florida destinations that Porter hopes to reach. Kingston might seem like a possiblity, but it is that much farther east for the turboprops to fly to, so it would waste Porter passengers’ valuable time when compared with using the County. And the landing fees to be negotiated with the County might be a little more reasonable than those at Waterloo or Kingston. So think about it. Picton municipal airport— make that Mulroney International Airport— could easily, with a little sprucing up, become the hub of an airline that saw commuter turboprop flights coming and going from Toronto Island every half-hour, with passengers at Mulroney International connecting onwards to jet to eastern and southern longer-range destinations. And, of course, people from Toronto could decide just to take the 30-minute hop and come to the County for a day or two’s sightseeing.

Is it technically possible? Well, the Picton airport has three runways, the longest being 786 metres, which is quite a bit shorter than the longest runway at Billy Bishop. But heck, there’s lots of space to extend them if we just knock out a couple of roads and a few houses. And besides, the airport’s up on a mountain as it is, so they don’t need as much liftoff room as they do in Toronto at lake level. They’d just have to be careful not to take off into the southeast or they would suffer some turbine- related turbulence.

Is it economically feasible? Well, excuse me for not being a rocket scientist, but isn’t the risk all on the upside: I mean, what real costs would we incur compared to the benefits? Just to pick one fer’instance, we could do a fantastic retro conversion of our former Picton Memorial Hospital into a sleek, chic Porter Airlines Reception Centre and provide free shuttle bus service back and forth to Mulroney International. Hospital staff could be retained in order to offer passengers relaxing back rubs and complimentary refreshments.

All those high rolling international travel types could wander into downtown Picton and drop big bucks at Scooperman’s Ice Cream Parlour or Shonsey’s Pub while they were waiting for their connections. The wind turbines themselves could become an attraction. Travellers could be told they are a kind of massive art installation, whirring endlessly and sending energy to disappear out into the ether; signifying something or other about humankind’s relation to nature. And of course, there’s a massive window that would open up to sell County wines (and beer, and cider, and vegetables and fudge) duty-free.

And becoming an international airport means that the Canadian Border Services Ageny would have to set up shop here. We could anticipate that its sniffer dogs would really enjoy our open spaces: they could sharpen their skills chasing down our coyote population. Porter would also have to set up a servicing operation here, which would allow our small engine repair specialists to tackle something other than the regular fare of riding mowers, snow blowers and half-ton trucks. The list of potential benefits is endless.

much to make it feasible as it is to be the first municipal airport (after Toronto) to make a bold move and strike a deal wlth Porter that seems too good to be true. We’d just have to make sure it had to come back to us for permission to launch flights into outer space. No pulling the wool over our eyes.

dsimmonds@wellingtontime.ca