Windows on A Family in Westmount

Apr 7 2000 2:28 PM CBC

Stop airport development: profs

The Montreal Airport Authority is planning to spend 1.3 billion dollars over the next 20 years to expand the facility, but the professors have come out with a report which shows the future of air travel belongs to Mirabel.

Jacques Roy is a professor of Transportation management at the University of Quebec in Montreal. He and some colleagues have put out an independent study which looks at the benefits of transferring international flights to Dorval from Mirabel.

"It was assumed at the time that by consolidating the flights in Dorval, the connecting traffic would grow by 650,000 passengers. The results we have so far only indicate something like 36,000," Roy says.

No room to grow Roy says Dorval is too small to properly expand. The report states it makes more sense to transfer the flights to Mirabel, where there's more room and it's farther away from the urban center. It says Dorval should be converted into a cargo airport.

Roy's wants the competition bureau to investigate the ADM's relationship with Air Canada.

As for the federal government, "they act as if they own the place," Roy says. "They are charging users this fee for improving the airport, and now they're talking about an increase to $30. And they don't ask the permission to anyone, they don't have to be accountable."

Roy and his colleagues will be presenting the report at the House of Commons Standing Committee on Transport, next week in Ottawa.