Island airport in "downward spiral"
Response to the TPA:
Wow. Members of the Toronto Port Authority staff are getting pretty touchy about their $50 million tunnel.
Wow. Members of the Toronto Port Authority staff are getting pretty touchy about their $50 million tunnel.
Perhaps the reason is that there is simply no
justification for spending $50 million so that a few, and a shrinking, number of
passengers can save four minutes of their precious time.
Remember, it wasn't CommunityAIR that came to the
conclusion that the $50 million tunnel would only save four minutes of
passenger's time. That was an independent journalist.
My only original contribution to the debate was the
comment that the cost of $50 million was a ball park estimate at best. The
tunnel could end up costing much, much more.
But the real question here is, what is the
justification for the tunnel? Porter's business has plateaued and now that
Air Canada will be providing stiff competition for passengers out of the Island
Airport, I am willing to wager dollars to donuts that the Porter passenger
numbers are about to go down. The end result will be that none of
the airlines will make money operating out of the Island
Airport.
The whole Island Airport enterprise is in a
downward spiral. I don't want to spell out the analogy of what happens to
an air plane in a downward spiral, but it ain't pretty.
Wake up and drink the coffee, Toronto Port
Authority. Your airport dream is on the way down and all the investments
in tunnels and defensive replies to the CommunityAIR blog will not change
it.
Bill Freeman
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