The first item in this series looked at the admissibility of the Q400 as a permissible aircraft at the Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport (BBTCA) based on the provisions of the 1983 Tripartite Agreement (Agreement) and the 1985 amendment.  This instalment also references the Agreement, within the context of the level of commercial service allowable.

The TPA version

Fact: The 1983 Tripartite Agreement sets out the rules, restrictions and protocols for aircraft activity and commercial service at BBTCA. Not only that, but the BBTCA hosted three different commercial carriers throughout the 1980s and 1990s.

The CommunityAIR Version

The TPA is correct.  The 1983 Tripartite Agreement sets out the rules, restrictions and protocols for aircraft activity and commercial service at BBTCA.  The Toronto Port Authority’s statement is a response to CommunityAIR’s claim that the airport was never intended to be an active commercial airport.

Sections of the Tripartite Agreement prohibit use of the airport for any purpose except “general aviation” and “limited commercial STOL service operations” and operations ancillary to those uses.  They define limited commercial STOL service as a service using short takeoff and landing (STOL) aircraft, for hire, or reward, in an operation duly licensed by the Air Transport Committee of the Canadian Transport Commission, and operating in a manner compatible with the specified capacity and capability of the airport facilities provided and in accordance with the conditions of Section 14.” 

Section 14 is key.  It requires the TPA to regulate the frequency of aircraft movements within an NEF contour or noise containment area.  The NEF contour is a line enveloping an area surrounding the airport.  Its position and relationship to the surrounding area is determined by a modeling formula based on factors such as the various kinds of aircraft flown and their frequency, the numbers of helicopter take-offs and landings, the number of night flights, etc.  Once the NEF contour is established, the TPA knows what level of activity is permissible. 

The NEF contour model gives the airport operator scheduling choices as to the kinds of aircraft and their purposes.  For example, if helicopters flying at night account for a certain amount of activity that reduces the number of commercial airline flights, the operator has the flexibility to reduce the number of helicopter flights in order to increase the number of commercial flights as long as the total number of movements stays within the NEF contour.

Commercial airline activity, the number of take-offs and landings, are referred to as slots.  Each take-off is a slot as is each landing.  Thus 212 slots can mean 106 take-offs and 106 landings. 

The TPA claims 212 slots available for commercial service under the NEF are allowable by the Agreement.  They base their claim on work done by their consultant.  However, the earliest verifiable number seen by CommunityAIR is contained in a July 21, 1998 Transport Canada memo that sets the number of slots available for commercial service at 97.

Defying credibility, the TPA continues to argue that doubling Transport Canada’s 97 to the TPA consultant’s 212 slots does not expand the airport into an active commercial airport.

As for the observation that the airport hosted three different commercial carriers throughout the 1980s and 1990s, a look at the numbers available proves CommunityAIR’s point that the TPA is expanding the airport into an active commercial airport.

In 1982, City Centre Airways started the first airline service using the Dash 7.  Their presence at the airport was the catalyst for the Tripartite Agreement.  Under pressure by the federal provincial and regional (Metro) governments to develop the airport for commercial purposes, City Council wanted to keep the airport a manageable mix of general and limited commercial traffic.

Starting in November 1983 with the purchase of Air Atonabee, mainly for its licence to fly from the airport to Ottawa, City Express soon came into being.  In 1987, passenger traffic peaked at 400,000.

In 1989, City Council looked for a way to stop the airport operator’s plans to triple the number of flights, from 42 to 112.  Council suggested that the airport operators cap the number of flights at 90 per day.  Air Ontario, the third commercial carrier in the 1980s and 1990s was included in the airport plans.  Air Ontario, a private company, owned 75 per cent by Air Canada and 25 per cent by the Deluce family, announced that they would begin service in April 1990. 

Today, the TPA claims that the airport will handle somewhere north of 1.3 million passengers and plans to allow 212 flights.  The 1.3 million passengers is three times the previous peak number set in 1987.  The 212 slots are over double the City Council cap of 90 and Transport Canada’s 97. 

Perhaps the TPA can explain why these greatly increased numbers don’t point to an active commercial airport, especially since they won’t reveal the details explaining how they arrived at 212 slots.

Bob Kotyk