Ports Toronto (the trade name for the Toronto Port Authority) failed, for the first time, to report the number of passengers using its Island Airport, in its 2015 Management Discussion & Analysis released late last week.

And to obfuscate even more, it has now mixed its Airport Improvement Fee income – which otherwise could be used to calculate the number of passengers ‑ with revenue from its tunnel advertising. See Note 9 to the 2015 Financial Statements..

This appears in its Management Discussion and Analysis for its 2015 financial year:

The number of enplaned and deplaned passengers in 2015 combined (not including connecting passengers) slightly decreased from 2014.

But this is what appears in 2014:

The number of enplaned and deplaned passengers in 2014 combined (not including connecting passengers) increased over 2013, but on a flatter curve than in prior years. Enplaned and deplaned passengers in 2014 totaled 1,996,4941 versus 1,911,6321 in 2013. With connecting passengers included, the numbers for enplaned and deplaned passengers were 2,428,2821 and 2,294,4221 in 2014 and 2013, respectively.

2014 was the Airport’s peak year. The number of passengers through the Airport in the three previous years were just over 1.9M in each year.

“We’re not surprised” said Brian Iler, chair of CommunityAIR. “While Porter and Ports Toronto want you to believe their business is robust, the facts suggest the opposite. Ports Toronto is covering up its bad news, just as Porter has done.”

Porter^[i] stopped reporting its monthly passenger data in April 2013, after selling fewer seats in five of the last seven months it reported, compared to the year before.