PortsToronto is hosting their second public meeting as part of its implementation of the Runway End Safety Areas (RESAs) for Runway at Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport. This meeting will focus on preliminary findings of the environmental assessment of three RESA options to comply with Transport Canada’s RESA requirements.
On October 9, City Council voted to endorse RESA option 1 and grant a lease extension of up to 12 years if Ports Toronto can prove they need the time to arrange financing. They did not accept the Staff and Executive Committee recommendation around not extending the Tripartite agreement. Instead motions from the floor were passed that support future airport operations beyond 2033, without taking into consideration factors relating to health and the environment. Air Quality study findings in the Bathurst Quay Neighbourhood and recommendations around UFP particles must be part of future discussions around airport operations.
There are two in-person meeting options
Westin Harbour Castle Hotel
Frontenac Ballroom
1 Harbour Square, Toronto, ON M5J 1A6
(Queens Quay East just east of Bay Street)
Tuesday, October 15, 2024
2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Tuesday, October 15, 2024
6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.
"A thirty minute presentation will be followed by a brief Q&A session and the opportunity to review display boards and speak directly to members of the environmental assessment team, design engineers as well as PortsToronto staff."
The meetings will also be live-streamed over Zoom at this link
Background
Transport Canada requires Canadian airports that service 325,000 passengers for two consecutive years to implement Runway End Safety Area (RESA) within three years. Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport will meet this threshold in June 2024. This will trigger the RESA requirement which will need to be met by 2027.
RESA is a cleared and graded area of land located immediately beyond the end of the runway. RESAs are located at both ends of runways and are designated areas of open space designed to be used in cases where aircraft overrun the end of a runway or undershoot and land prior to the runway for safety purposes.
Another solution is to make the stopping area on the existing runway length (EMAS) but this would require flying smaller planes or smaller loads on the Q400 planes as the runway would be shortened. However, no fill would then be required to be added into the lake.
Context
This is a public consultation meeting about the need for safety zones at both ends of the runway. A RESA would require filling into the lake and harbour, extending the airport’s “no-go” zones at either end, further limiting water access for boats, kayaks and other watercraft.
Is the Airport popular? It is losing business hand over foot to Pearson (The Island Airport’s number of passengers declined by 27% in 2023 from 2019, pre-COVID – Pearson dropped just 11% over the same period)? And Porter and Air Canada have drastically cut back their flights out of the Island Airport – from a peak of 202 daily landings and takeoffs to about 110, depending on the day.
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