You may be even more inclined to hit Niagara-on-the-Lake this summer if it didn’t come with the inevitable traffic on the Gardiner and QEW.
Well, good news, because soon you may be able to forgo the 115-km drive around Lake Ontario from downtown Toronto to Niagara – an often gruelling commute that can take up to two hours in heavy traffic.
The alternative? An eight-minute flight.
Officials in Niagara Region are hoping to sell Porter Airlines on the idea of running a commuter flight from Niagara District to downtown Toronto’s Billy Bishop Airport, as the Financial Post reports. According to the publication, Regional Council Chair Alan Caslin recently met with Porter CEO Bob Deluce to pitch the idea of using Niagara’s airport as both a service station and a place to store planes overnight.
“The twist is that if you did in fact use Niagara District Airport as an overnight parking lot, the first flight in the morning could be a commuter flight to Toronto Island,” he told the Post. The flight would service people commuting into Toronto from places in the Niagara and Hamilton regions.
Of course, it also makes for a great weekend trip to Niagara when you don’t want to drive.
A spokesperson for Porter said the airline is “generally open” to proposals for new flights, but said there were no plans at the moment to introduce new routes.
Niagara ‘s airport serves “general aviation” exclusively – meaning private jets and other non-scheduled, commercial flights. Their website currently features a survey that asks people how interested they would be in the proposed commuter flight, and how much they would be willing to pay for it.
Though officials are interested in bringing commercial flights to the airport, it would likely require the construction of a new passenger terminal according to the Niagara Advance.
With Toronto real estate prices beyond many millennials’ capacity, buying a house outside of the city may make sense if the office was just an eight-minute flight away. Almost.
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