"Pearson terminal opening delayed; Launch shifted to early next year Officials blame impact of SARS"

Thursday, August 7, 2003

Pearson terminal opening delayed; Launch shifted to early next year
Officials blame impact of SARS
Canada - The Toronto Star


The opening of Toronto's new terminal at Pearson International Airport has
been delayed due to Air Canada's woes and the sharp decline in tourist
traffic caused by the SARS outbreak.

The $4 billion facility was supposed to open in October or November, but now
won't open until early in 2004, when both the domestic and international
flights sections of the terminal will be ready. 

"Are we delaying the start, yeah. But the truth of the matter is this is a
self-imposed deadline," Lou Turpen, president of the Greater Toronto
Airports Authority, said in an interview yesterday.

When the new terminal is finished, it will be able to handle 50 million
passengers a year. Before the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, which
occurred in the middle of construction for the terminal, traffic at Pearson
was peaking at 31 million passengers a year but has declined to about 27
million a year.

Turpen said to open the domestic part of the new terminal in the fall would
have required busing passengers from old Terminal 1, a justifiable move if
volume had been overflowing.

Air Canada spokesperson Laura Cooke said the airline has no objection to the
change in plans, especially since it should make things easier on
passengers.

The airport is financing its upgrades largely through bonds and fees charged
to airlines and passengers. With Air Canada in bankruptcy protection, it has
slashed the number of flights leaving Pearson, drastically cutting its fees
and passenger load.

As a result, on July 8, Standard & Poor's lowered its rating on the Greater
Toronto Airports Authority to A- from A, due primarily to the poor condition
of the airline industry, including the devastating travel advisory issued by
the World Health Organization in the midst of the SARS outbreak. Despite the
downgrade, Standard & Poor's called the GTAA's outlook "stable."

Turpen said the GTAA will hold a news conference and provide a preview of
the new building Dec. 2, at which time it will announce the time of the
first flight out of the new Terminal 1 and the time of the last flight out
of the old Terminal 1, which is slated for demolition. 

As it stands, Turpen said, the domestic area will be completed Oct. 30, the
international flights area Dec. 19, and testing will be done early in the
new year.

"Co-ordinating this (opening) with the international flights makes all the
sense in the world," said Turpen. 

"Especially after SARS, we're very much more interested in making this a
co-ordinated, international, domestic, major hub."


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