Toronto Island airport says it needs to pave over part of the lake to meet safety standards

Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport says it needs to extend further into Lake Ontario to comply with new safety standards, the alternative being the island flight hub's permanent closure in the not-too-distant future.

Details of the airport's proposed expansion were revealed during a public meeting covering recent changes to regulations regarding Runway End Safety Areas (RESAs), offering a glimpse into the travel hub's plans to adapt and meet compliance.

Ports Toronto commissioned airport consultants Avia NG to study how RESAs could be implemented at Billy Bishop Airport, resulting in a shortlist of three options that align with the facility's operational needs.

Options included preparing natural compacted open areas (i.e., soil or grass) to decelerate aircraft, shortening the runway or installing an arresting system to halt planes.

Of the three choices, only one was deemed a viable solution — an engineered materials arresting system (EMAS), also known as an arrester bed — with the report stating that "commercial air service would no longer be viable" if the other options were pursued.

EMAS is like a hybrid of the runaway truck lanes that use soil and gravel to stop malfunctioning trucks on highways, and the arresting cables used to halt landing planes on aircraft carriers, but on a use-and-replace, emergency-only basis.

Essentially, landing aircraft overshooting the runway would be safely halted by the EMAS's engineered materials crumbling beneath the weight of the plane and acting as an external brake, rather than having the plane careen into the lake in near-certain catastrophe.

It would mark the first implementation of an EMAS at a Canadian airport, though current options being explored would swallow up as much 4.5 hectares of the lake to accommodate this new safety feature.

This largest and most expensive option, at a staggering $100 million, includes 12,800 square metres of new landmass added to the west end of the runway and projecting 82 metres from the current seawall, combined with 32,700 square metres of landmass extension at the east end of the runway, extending out 66 metres from that seawall.

The Toronto Island airport @BBishopAirport wants permission to expand into the harbour. Here is one scenario, 4.5 hectares of lakefill and more than $100 million: pic.twitter.com/mNGm6p5zRm

— Alex Bozikovic (@alexbozikovic) August 16, 2024

It should be noted that all of these potential expansion schemes fall within the airport's Marine Exclusion Zone (MEZ), which are sections of the lake/harbour where boating is already strictly prohibited.

Unlike the earlier runway extension debate that ultimately saw Billy Bishop's main carrier, Porter, launch jet operations from Toronto Pearson International Airport, PortsToronto stresses that "the project is not intended to address runway extensions or have any effect on current runway operations, runway capacity or aircraft types using the runway."

That being said, the plan notes that this supersized option would allow for "modest development opportunities" for the south airfield area.

Some possible benefits to entice the public are also mentioned, most notable a vague but intriguing "future consideration" of "possible space allocation for [the] provision of [a] landside perimeter pathway for public use," potentially providing a bypass to the airport lands and turning the existing fixed-link airport tunnel into a new public connection to the islands.

The plan is still in its consultation stages, and PortsToronto is expected to present a report on the proposed safety zone expansions to the mayor's executive committee later this year.