CommunityAIR - devoted to restoring the lands and harbour now occupied by the Toronto Island airport to park, recreation, and cultural uses.

A large, polluting airport within two kilometres of the city downtown will ruin the quality of life of all Torontonians.

• Porter Airlines now has twelve aircraft with another six Q400s on order from Bombardier. The company plans to increase its fleet to 20 planes, and if that is successful, they will buy even more aircraft. Twenty planes will be over double the traffic at the Island Airport, bringing more than twice the pollution, more than twice the noise, more than twice the traffic and more than twice the safety risks..
  
  
• Billions of public- and private-sector dollars are being invested on the waterfront. One hundred thousand people will live on the waterfront and another 100,000 will work there when the project is completed. A busy airport with hundreds of daily flights is incompatible with redevelopment.
  
  
• The island airport is an unsafe, inadequate facility. The runways are too short, the stopways are inadequate, bird strikes are common, and “pilot cautions” list several hazards from high rise buildings and smoke stacks around the airport.
  
  
• Short-haul flights cause more pollution than any other form of travel. A flight from Toronto to Ottawa by a Porter Q400 releases 2,865 kilograms of CO2. Car traffic generated by the airport is bringing more air pollution to the nearby neighbourhoods.
  
  
• Bombardier Q400 airplanes such as those used at the island airport have had serious safety problems. Scandinavian Airways and All Nippon Airways of Japan have experienced safety problems with the Q400 landing gear.
  
  
• On February 13, 2009 a Colgan Air Q400 aircraft went down in Northern New York State killing 50 people.  It is believed that the crash was the result of deicing problems with the aircraft, but it is still under investigation.
  
  
• Millions of dollars of government subsidies have gone to Bombardier, the Toronto Port Authority and the island airport. Porter Airlines has received $20 million from the federal government. Why are the taxpayers subsidizing a polluting airport and private companies?


• High-speed trains must replace short haul flights along the Toronto/Ottawa/Montreal/Quebec City corridor and to other major centers.  This will reduce air pollution, eliminate safety problems and move people efficiently.
  
  
• Porter Airlines should relocate to an airport where it can adequately serve its customers and reduce pollution in the high-density downtown neighbourhoods. Lands currently used by the airport should then be turned over to more environmentally friendly purposes.
  
  
• The 215 acres of land occupied by the island airport provide a unique opportunity to create exciting parks and public facilities accessible to millions of people.
  
  
• The expanded island airport has been imposed by the Toronto Port Authority against the wishes of the majority of the people of Toronto.