Skies Over Milton Continue To Be Quieter This Summer And Fall

Toronto International Airport is at 86 percent of its pre-COVID-19 pandemic flight volumes and no major runway maintenance is scheduled this summer, so the skies over Milton will continue to be somewhat quieter.

However, citizen complaints were ahead of pre-pandemic levels, likely reflecting major runway rehabilitation work undertaken by the Greater Toronto Airports Authority (GTAA) during the pandemic and the changing flight patterns that occurred, as a result.

The GTAA continues to implement its five-year noise management action plan. For the full-year 2022, the six ideas preferential runway system trial achieved 88.6 percent adherence. And, the quieter fleet incentive program saw 83 percent of A320 series aircraft upgraded to achieve quieter flight performance.

One of the major initiatives undertaken by the GTAA is required navigation performance authorization required (RNP AR), a procedure that can provide significant operational and safety advantages over other area navigation (RNAV) procedures. It achieves this by incorporating additional navigational accuracy, integrity and functional capabilities to permit operations using reduced obstacle clearance tolerances that enable approach and departure procedures. It also reduces fuel consumption. An update on its implementation will be provided by the GTAA before the end of 2023.

During Q1 2023, the GTAA recorded a net income of $48.8 million. However, the authority continues to have significant debt, which dramatically increased during the pandemic. Although debt decreased $411 million from $7.2 billion in 2021, it still remains $390 million greater than 2019, amounting to a total debt of $6.8 billion. CR