Harry Valentine of Cornwall Ontario on Airport Development LTE Nov 21, 2013

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plane capn danCornwall City Council seeks to evaluate the future of Cornwall Airport after some councillors expressed concern about the facility’s operating cost. The proposal to extend the runway to 5,000-feet to land a small jet plane depends on available federal money, except the federal people seem in no great hurry to do anything. To the east of the Cornwall Airport lies Montreal’s main industrial area located right next to the international airport. Several aerospace industries occupy space in that industrial area .  .  . . in fact, the aerospace industry is politically sacred in Quebec.

There are several jet-ready airports located near Montreal .  .  . St Hubert Airport, Mirabel Airport, Gatineau Airport and the airport at Lachute. Kingston’s Norman Rogers airfield is also small-jet capable, except that Toronto Island Airport forbids jet aircraft. With jet capable airports at Mirabel, Lachute, Gatineau and Kingston located within 20-minutes jet flight of Montreal, the transportation economists at the Canadian Transportation Agency will need to hear one hell of a persuasive case to fund any extension to the runway at Cornwall, especially in view of the political sanctity of Montreal’s aerospace sector.
As long as no federal cash is forthcoming, some players in Greater Montreal’s aerospace sector may make favourable comments about the location of Cornwall Airport. Except when it comes time to invest into moving part or all of their operations to Cornwall Airport. Given the political nature of the (Montreal) aerospace sector, private investment may be the most likely way to extend the runway at Cornwall. The investor will expect both a good return on the investment and a favourable response from players in Montreal’s aerospace sector .  . . the former being very dependant on the latter.
Those decisions will determine as to whether float-planes will touch down and take off on the section of the St Lawrence River and Cornwall docks.

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2 Comments

  1. People need to stop dreaming in colour! We don’t need to have a bigger airport!

  2. Thanks Stanley . . . . people connected to Cornwall airport need to familiarize themselves with some airport history in Montreal before uses Lachute as a basis for comparison. Many years ago, there was Cartierville Airport with its 8,000-ft runway located just west of Laurentian Blvd. When that airport closed (there were traffic lights on the main highway to stop traffic as aeroplanes approached to land or when they took off), operations were spread between airports at St Hubert and at Lachute. Mirabel was originally built to serve supersonic aircraft.

    Some federal bureaucrats may have a mandate in their job descriptions to oversee the interests of some high-profile sectors of the economy of Montreal . . . and aerospace is politically very sacred. Forget about federal funding to lengthen the runway at Cornwall . . . . when it comes to aircraft maintenance, the airports at St Hubert, Lachute and Gatineau will be given priority . . . . and there is capacity galore at Gatineau. While a longer runway may be nice to have at Cornwall, don’t even think of using federal funding to achieve that end and for the purpose of competing with a politically sacred sector of the Montreal economy.

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