07-31-2021, 11:15 PM
(07-31-2021, 09:34 PM)Bjays93 Wrote: Just to add to this. What was the regional population 32 years ago? Sub 400k, now it's nearly 700k (almost double) and rapidly heading towards 1 million. The population of the whole golden horseshoe cant have been more than 4 or 5 million 30 years ago, now its 10 and headed for over 13m in the next 20 years even with conservative estimates.
This is one of the busiest and fastest growing metropolitan regions in the world. Look at other major global cities and metros, many of the largest need more than just one airport and YKF is perfectly situated to start picking up pearson traffic way more than it was 30 years ago. May it be a little longer still before we see true success sure, but upgrading the airport is much like building the LTR in my opinion, it's not getting built and upgraded for now, its getting ready for future demand and need. Its always better to be ahead than playing catchup.
First of all, the regional population is ~617,000 as of 2019. I don't think this is "nearly 700k".
But I'm not sure why you're talking 32 years ago. The airport flight arrangements we are talking about happened all of 5-7 years ago. Our region has not changed much since then.
As for the airport, the difference is that air travel is not necessarily a good investment for the future. Short haul flights are some of the most tenuous flights that should be eliminated to help reduce GHG emissions. Long haul flights do not have an alternative now, but with more space open at Pearson if flights to locations like London, Montreal, Ottawa are eliminated, there will be less need for other airports.