Hi Mr. Wilson,

I used to work for Air Canada and I can tell you that Porter can Turn around a Q400 in about 30 minutes which means many more trips per aircraft per day to your equation.

I would suspect that Porter is already close to 70 flights per day. If not, once they increase Montreal & Ottawa to 18 & 14 trips daily respectively they'll certainly pass the 70 mark. Ottawa & Montreal alone will account for 54 flights per day then you must add their other destinations.

My point is that at 18 aircraft, a more realistic number of movements will likely be closer to 135-145 per day. I've already made this point on the blog that the average time between EITHER a take-off OR a landing will be about 4.5 minutes if Porter exercises all slots allotted to them (176 - correct me if I'm wrong Mr. Freeman / Iler).

This also means that Porter can't expand indefinitely as some have suggested. I know many of you have little regard for the TPA or the TriPartite agreement but the slots allotted to commercial traffic at the TCCA are indeed limited based on the Noise Exposure formula.

The TPA CANNOT unilaterally increase the amount of slots so the potential of the TCCA resembling London City or San Diego becomes a moot point. Keep in mind that San Diego averages 600 flights per day and London City 250 per day while the TCCA Porter operation is capped at around 176. If anything changes this equation, it'll be because the city allowed it to happen - not likely under the watchful eyes of Mr. Miller. If you need proof, just remember it was the city that both approved and canceled the bridge by allowing changes to the TRI agreement.

There are limits on the TCCA operation that are rarely acknowledged since some people prefer to spend their time speculating on when and how the airport will grow into a mini Pearson. Folks, I'm here to tell you that the TCCA at current levels ALREADY impacts the Pearson operation when certain runway and weather combinations occur. Besides the TRIPartite agreement, the TPA won't get carte blanche to increase flights simply because of the delays it may cause at Pearson - the Greater Toronto Airports Authority will likely see to that.

I'm not making any guarantees or grand promises. I'm only trying to provide some perspective to those who wish to heighten the anxiety of residents near the TCCA with speculative and unfounded doomsday scenarios. I acknowledge that, TO MANY, it is bad now and that it will be worse when Porter reaches their slot limit. However, we must at some point, acknowledge that this isn't a runaway train barging down the tracks and that even at MAXIMUM levels, Porter will reach 70% of the London City traffic count and 29% of the San Diego count. Any additional growth from Porter beyond 20 aircraft will take place outside of the TCCA.

Thanks.
Joe