I have been off for a few days attending to family, Christmas and all of those other things we all enjoy over the holidays.  This morning  I got up early, anxious to get back into my routine, and went out for a run.

It was 7:30 in the morning -- Sunday, two days after Christmas -- the sun was just coming up in a glorious display of reds and yellows, when the engine runups at the Island Airport split the calm.  For five continuous minutes the high pitch sounds of a powerful airplane engine running at maximum throttle reverberated over the water, the Island park and reached well inland, past the condos, co-ops and affordable housing units, at least as far as Queen Street if not beyond.

Sometimes it seems that Porter Airlines and the managers of the Island Airport are determined to ruin their relationship with the community.  The arrogance is overwhelming.  Why does Porter do engine runups early on a Sunday morning and why does the management of the airport allow them to do it? 

How many people were awakened by this engine noise early this morning?  How many elderly people staggered out of bed wondering what calamity was happening?  How many children were shaken awake?  How many parents exhausted from the holidays, hoping to sleep in this one morning before having to go back to work on Monday had their sleep shattered?

We know that it is pointless to protest to the airport managers.  Why waste the effort to write a stinging note when all that happens is yet another reminder that this is allowed under the Tripartite Agreement?  This has to stop but what will do it? 

Bill Freeman