The TPA has announced a number of capital improvements at the airport:
The $8 million in capital equipment expenditures at the BBTCA will be entirely financed by the Airport Improvement Fee paid by travellers. Highlights of that program include:

- $2.6 million for an Equipment Maintenance building;

- $2.26 million for additional snow removal equipment,

- $800,000 to establish a dedicated airport policing structure to
enhance passenger safety;

- $660,000 for an engine "run-up" noise barrier;

- $300,000 to redesign the airport's turning circle to improve
efficiency; and

- $240,000 to resurface taxiways.
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The National Post says that the barrier will help direct the sound of engine run-ups across the lake:

The TPA this week approved $8-million in airport upgrades including an engine ''run-up'' noise barrier, which TPA president Geoffrey Wilson said is critical to the airport's long-term success. The barrier, designed to act as a buffer between the airport and nearby residential areas, is to be built by summer.

"We would be doing this investment with or without increased interest in expansion by other carriers at the airport," Mr. Wilson said. "Run-up noise was identified, in the recent noise management study we conducted, as one of the major irritants at the airport so we are taking steps to mitigate that."

Planes run up their engines after certain maintenance tasks, running them at a variety of power levels, including full, for between five and 45 minutes. "We will build a three-sided structure and effectively what that does is it baffles the noise and it shoots the noise in a south-westerly direction out over the lake and away from any residents whether at Bathurst Quay or on the islands," Mr. Wilson said.
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EDIT: The Toronto Sun has an article on this as well.
 
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The Toronto Sun is reporting that the new ferry, the Marilyn Bell, will be going into service tomorrow (Friday). The current ferry, the David Hornell, will be kept as a backup.
 
Porter has announced service to Sudbury (YSB), starting March 31. Looks like service will be once a day -- north at 12:30pm and south at 2pm.

I flew from Toronto to Ottawa (and back) today. The new ferry is much bigger than the old one (probably twice as much space for passengers) and has a couple of padded benches to sit on.

The Ottawa lounge is very nice (I am posting from there now). It is pretty much the same as the Toronto one, but smaller and without the gates -- so very quiet. One complaint, however: The coffee machine doesn't seem to have coffee as an option -- latte, expresso, cappucino, decaf Latte, decaf expresso, decaf cappucino, but no coffee :-(
 
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Reminds me of a certain coffeeshop haunt of urbanisty sorts in Toronto that doesn't sell none of that provincial drip coffee nonsense, only Americanos. :)

Airport politics aside, whoever it is in Porter's ad department that gets sit around and come up with new outfits for Mr. Porter the raccoon has to have the awesomest job in the world. (We're going to Sudbury, you say? Put the little dude in a hard hat.)
 
sjc said:
Porter has announced service to Sudbury (YSB), starting March 31. Looks like service will be once a day -- north at 12:30pm and south at 2pm.

I flew from Toronto to Ottawa (and back) today. The new ferry is much bigger than the old one (probably twice as much space for passengers) and has a couple of padded benches to sit on.

The Ottawa lounge is very nice (I am posting from there now). It is pretty much the same as the Toronto one, but smaller and without the gates -- so very quiet. One complaint, however: The coffee machine doesn't seem to have coffee as an option -- latte, expresso, cappucino, decaf Latte, decaf expresso, decaf cappucino, but no coffee :-(
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Article - http://www.northernontariobusiness....on/Porter-Airlines-soars-into-Sudbury604.aspx

About damn time.
 
My girlfriend and I had a terrible island airport experience this past weekend. We both arrived a little over 2 hours early for our flight to get seats as close to the front as possible to quickly make it through customs. Our flight from Chicago was delayed an hour so they had canceled another flight from Chicago to fit both planes onto one. We finally get to Toronto and as were walking down the hall to customs, one of the employees directs us to walk down this other hallway. We get to the end of the hallway only to have another employee tell us that we have to turn around and that we shouldn't have come down this way. I guess at the same time, another flight from Boston had also arrived. So instead of being able to quickly get through customs, were stuck at the back of 2 incoming full flights. Instead of getting out of the airport at 10:00 we finally got through customs, baggage and the ferry by 11:30. It seemed like everyone at the airport didn't have a clue what was going on. Considering I could have gone through Pearson and been out of there in 30 minutes, waiting in a giant line for one of two customs officers was slightly frustrating.
 
Things should improve a bit when the new terminal opens. There are 5 gates right now and there was no free gate for my plane or the plane behind ours when we arrived at YTZ last night. It didn't take too long for a gate to free up, but it is an example of how stretched for space they are at the moment. Certainly a larger baggage claim area would not be out of order.

The larger ferry is a nice improvement.
 
With the discussion in the past about other airlines at the island airport... how about Bearskin Airlines? They could probably do a good business serving destinations that could benefit from a direct link to Toronto, but are too small to fill a Q400.
 
CDL.TO said:
With the discussion in the past about other airlines at the island airport... how about Bearskin Airlines? They could probably do a good business serving destinations that could benefit from a direct link to Toronto, but are too small to fill a Q400.
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I have never flown on a bearskin....what kind of planes do they use? Can they land at the Island?
 
According to their website they are twin-prop 19-seat Fairchild Metroliners. I saw one arrive in Ottawa yesterday from Kitchener that looked pretty full. The passengers have to walk outside to get to and from the plane.

They could probably do well flying to Kingston, London and maybe even Kitchener from the Island. Whether it would be worthwhile to fly to the Sault, Sudbury, North Bay and/or Timmins would depend on what Porter is up to in regard to those destinations. Code-sharing with Porter on the flights to the North could be effective.
 
Those Metroliners allow no where near the level of service or the range or comfort that a Q400 allows for. Bearskin is just lucky that Porter has no interest in serving some of their destinations.
 
kEiThZ said:
Those Metroliners allow no where near the level of service or the range or comfort that a Q400 allows for. Bearskin is just lucky that Porter has no interest in serving some of their destinations.
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Obviously 70-seat Porter planes are in a whole different class than 19-seat Bearskin planes. But that doesn't mean that a partnership can't be beneficial. (Widebodies and prop commuter craft are in completely different classes as well, but basically all successful airlines make use of both.)

If Porter has trouble justifying a route such as Toronto-Sault Ste Marie, Toronto-North Bay, Toronto-Kingston, or other smaller markets, perhaps that's a niche that Bearskin could fill?

Alternatively... the lack of service to Toronto is a big hole in Bearskin's network. A potential partnership with Porter could help open up the north to Toronto (and fill plane seats with civil servants and other resource industry travellers). Bearskin has hubs in Sudbury and Thunder Bay, both destinations that Porter now serves.

But yeah. Bearskin is a very small operation and that will always define things.
 
According to this TS article, a foot tunnel will connect the island and the city. There is a nice diagram that shows the passage.

Debra Black

Staff Reporter
The Toronto Port Authority says it intends to go ahead with a foot tunnel connecting the island airport and the city’s western harbour.

In a news release Friday, the authority said it was looking for partners and proposals to help “design, build, finance, operate and maintain a pedestrian tunnel.†“In light of the popularity of the Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport with travellers and airlines, it’s the right time to move forward with the pedestrian tunnel initiative,†said Mark McQueen, chairman of the TPA board of directors.

McQueen said an environmental assessment of the tunnel will be conducted, along with “a rigorous public consultation process as well as consideration of private sector proposals. The tunnel would provide an easy alternative to the 90-second ferry ride across the harbour’s western gap. The plan is for the tunnel’s construction and operational costs to be recovered through an airport improvement fee paid by airline passengers, the release said.

Bridges and the island airport have prompted controversy in the past. A previous plan to build a bridge died amid opposition from downtown and island residents. David Miller made killing the project a key plank in his successful mayoral campaign. Last fall, the port authority asked for federal stimulus funding for a proposed pedestrian tunnel, but it was turned down because the project missed the federal deadline for construction. About 500,000 passengers now use the island airport, with projections of more than a million to fly in and out of the downtown airport in 2010.
 
An elevator is not the most efficient way to get people across as a permanent solution. A long set of escalators on each side would work well.

Currently, the elevator might work because the "every 15 minute" ferry doesn't usually fill up when going to the island. It is coming from the island, when a plane lands that you'll see dozens of people loading on to the ferry. There might need to be an attendant working the elevator on the island side to prevent overcrowding.
 
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