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Gtaa Takes Lessons From Ontario Government On Creating Revenue Streams


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UP Express fare to include a fee in lieu of airport parking Metrolinx has agreed to pay about $1.85 per rider on the new airport train to the Greater Toronto Airports Authority, to cover lost parking revenue.
By: Tess Kalinowski Transportation reporter, Published on Fri Aug 01 2014

UP Express fare to include hidden parking fee

Travellers riding the city’s new airport train will avoid Toronto traffic. But they will still pay a portion of the cost of parking at Pearson International Airport.

In an agreement some are calling a blatant cash grab, each UP Express ticket will include a $2 airport fee, money the Greater Toronto Airports Authority says will help compensate for lost parking revenue when people start taking the train rather than driving to the airport.

Metrolinx, the provincial agency building the $456-million rail link from Union Station to Pearson, is anticipating 5,000 riders a day, about 1.8 million annually.

Although it hasn’t announced the fares yet, it is expected they will be between $20 and $30.

Metrolinx spokesperson Anne Marie Aikins confirmed that the agency has agreed to pay the the airports authority a fee based on ridership.

“As part of our stakeholder agreement with GTAA, Metrolinx is required to provide GTAA a payment as a condition for building the station at Pearson and providing service to UP customers. The initial estimate in the agreement is $1.85 (2011) per passenger. The final amount, however, has not yet been set,” she said.

The fee will be built into the UP Express business plan.

“We have to make sure it’s affordable but it also meets the needs of the business,” said Aikins.

The fares will be announced later this year, ahead of the opening of the UP Express next year. The GTAA’s goal is to break even, said its spokesperson, Trish Krale.

“It’s just a portion of the revenues we expect to lose, and the revenues we expect to lose will be substantially from parking fees … . In addition to that we do expect some impact to other revenue that we derive from ground transportation,” she said.

The number of people travelling through Pearson is expected to nearly double by 2030, to about 60 million from 36 million last year, said Krale. Travellers flying out of Pearson pay a $25 airport improvement fee; connecting passengers pay $4.

Taxi and limo drivers also pay a fixed monthly licensing fee to operate out of the airport. Krale would not say how much.

Transit activist Rick Ciccerelli calls the airport fee “highway robbery.”

“We’re trying to solve a problem with congestion in the city. We should be looking for agencies to contribute as opposed to find ways to exploit. I know the GTAA is worried this is somehow going to take away from their parking revenues, but I think it’s outrageous,” said Ciccerelli, who has lobbied for more stops on the line than the two stations at Bloor and Weston.

“You would think they would be glad to have less congestion of vehicles at the airport. There’s no reason other than a cash grab,” said NDP MP Mike Sullivan (York South-Weston), who has also pushed to have the service priced affordably for the approximately 40,000 people who work at the airport.

The shuttle will run every 15 minutes in both directions. The trains, called diesel multiple units, are being manufactured in Japan and assembled in the U.S., with the first now undergoing testing in Illinois. They’ll be shipped to Toronto starting later this summer.

The Airport Express bus that has shuttled directly between downtown Toronto hotels and Pearson is shutting down Oct. 31. Toronto residents still have the option of using the TTC subway and Airport Rocket bus.

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This revenue, like all non-aeronautical revenue at Canadian airports that pay rent to the federal gov't, will be used to offset aeronautical rates and charges.

The more money the GTAA can make in one bucket (non-aero), the lower the landing (aero) fees to carriers.

The GTAA is a not-for-profit entity that operates a single till model.

The resultant loss in revenue associated with parking that they expect would have to be generated elsewhere to offset their (largely fixed) expenses.

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This revenue, like all non-aeronautical revenue at Canadian airports that pay rent to the federal gov't, will be used to offset aeronautical rates and charges.

The more money the GTAA can make in one bucket (non-aero), the lower the landing (aero) fees to carriers.

The GTAA is a not-for-profit entity that operates a single till model.

The resultant loss in revenue associated with parking that they expect would have to be generated elsewhere to offset their (largely fixed) expenses.

Ha Ha Ha.... Ha Ha... Ha.

The GTAA will use the money to buy their staff new shirts, jackets, backpacks, fancy new pickup trucks, go out for lunches, or going to airport management conferences or to move existing useless signs or departure boards to other useless locations. Maybe commission a new corporate logo. Non profit just means that every dime that is taken in must be spent. It doesn't mean that it needs to be spent wisely..... Or maybe buy another bank of unused card readers leading to the employee parking garage... can't have too many of those... maybe another one of those signs that tells you how many parking spaces there are on each level but has no idea how many spots there are. Or reproduce the only cellphone parking lot in the world that requires that you take a ticket and is close to a kilometre from the terminal. Might as well wait at home till the phone rings....

Or maybe it will be used to maintain the baggage delivery system or buy bridge air conditioners that work, or even bridges that work. Or moving sidewalks that work. Or paint lines that need painting. Or buying the right snow removal equipment instead of the biggest MoFo front end loader we can buy that can't even turn around in a gate area .....

Nah.... where's that IZOD telephone number?

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Ha Ha Ha.... Ha Ha... Ha.

The GTAA will use the money to buy their staff new shirts, jackets, backpacks, fancy new pickup trucks, go out for lunches, or going to airport management conferences or to move existing useless signs or departure boards to other useless locations. Maybe commission a new corporate logo. Non profit just means that every dime that is taken in must be spent. It doesn't mean that it needs to be spent wisely..... Or maybe buy another bank of unused card readers leading to the employee parking garage... can't have too many of those... maybe another one of those signs that tells you how many parking spaces there are on each level but has no idea how many spots there are. Or reproduce the only cellphone parking lot in the world that requires that you take a ticket and is close to a kilometre from the terminal. Might as well wait at home till the phone rings....

Or maybe it will be used to maintain the baggage delivery system or buy bridge air conditioners that work, or even bridges that work. Or moving sidewalks that work. Or paint lines that need painting. Or buying the right snow removal equipment instead of the biggest MoFo front end loader we can buy that can't even turn around in a gate area .....

Nah.... where's that IZOD telephone number?

Angry much?

Perhaps you missed the part where I mentioned the largely fixed cost base (debt). Card readers here, hats there, are you serious? Have you ever worked for or heard of a company that was perfect? That was perfectly efficient?

If you're just going to attack my position and ridicule my post I'd rather not engage in further dialogue.

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Maybe if they didn't build these palaces the "fixed costs" debt wouldn't be so high.

All they do in YYC is renovate stuff... That place has been under constant renovation since the mid-90s.

And as soon as that gigantic international white elephant terminal is built you can be sure they'll be ripping up B. Will they just take the centre glass wall down. No no no way. Gotta make it look nice for the $30 they steal from everyone passing through.

$25 a trip for that ugly "world class" terminal in YWG. And is there any bigger palace than YVR? Fish and waterfalls for everyone!

Airports are monopolies and act like such. Just like the utilities. The only $ to worry about is the revenue line. Need more $? No problem. Parking and AIFs and CUTE fees and every other nickel-and-dime nonsense will take care of that.

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cavok:

Yeah... I am angry every time I go to the airport and see the waste and inefficiencies and the way the GTAA treats the airline's employees and customers.

The card readers and shirts are only the visible part. And when I'm in a lot of debt, I cut back on expenses. I don't go out and get a new logo and issue new clothing to my 1300 employees.

One day when you go out to the airport, pretend you are a once-in-five-year traveller. Act like you don't know the difference between international and transborder and don't know where to go and just follow the signs. Start right in the remote parking garage. Walking in from the parking garage/train station, it's like hitting a brick wall when you arrive inside the terminal.

Even 1 block from the airport, there are no direction signs to get there. Somebody on Fasken Drive who missed the airport exit has no way to know where to go, even though it is just two simple turns. We've all seen poor lost people in these areas. Many people here probably don't know this but the GTAA "owns" and runs almost all of the roads and stoplights around the airport, and owns a lot more of the land than many might imagine including, incidentally, the land on which the AC/CAE sim facility sits. Maybe they could cut back on their debt if they sold some of that off.

They have finally changed the check-in aisles from letters to numbers and that does mitigate a bit of confusion, but instead of looking at airports around the world for the way that they do it, they have just introduced another confusing numbering system... Might have been better to use elephants, giraffes and beavers like they do at the mall.

Descend on the escalators from domestic security and try to find a departure board... behind you, underneath the escalator. Nice that they moved the one in International so it was almost as hard to find. Don't want to play favourites.

Have you ever tried to park in the public terminal parking garage? Impossible to find a spot. And why are there 5 lanes to get in and 16 to get out, on two levels? Was it two separate committees that decided to do that? I've never seen more than 3 or 4 exit lanes in use at once.

Have a look where US passengers have to wait for their time to go through customs.

If the GTAA wants more money, why isn't there retail operations in the waiting area? At least give 'em something for their money. One can't even buy a bouquet of flowers or a Canadian flag in YYZ unless you go through security.

The Chairman of the Board is a cardiologist. Only two of 15 on the BofD have any experience in the travel industry. 15 Directors. Really? Air Canada has 9. WestJet has 12.

Everything seems to be done in hindsight starting with the basic design of T1. The level 2 security area is clearly an afterthought, the multiple problems with the de-ice bays over the years, inappropriate snow removal equipment , no baggage slides on bridges (until somebody gets a video of someone dropping a bag into the air conditioning hoses), no way to contact the GTAA when an escalator is out of service, a train that beats the crap out of the customers and employees.... just let some air out of the tires, please!

Add to that the highest landing fees and an AIF that enjoys a prominent place in any list.

So, yeah, I am frustrated.

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Maybe it's only me, but does anyone else feel it's dishonest for government to employ the word 'revenue' as a subliminal disguise for taxation? It's like using the term somehow legitimizes their ongoing inefficiencies & screw-ups.

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GTAA = 407ETR.

Both built with your tax dollars then privatized. The 'not for profit' monicker for the GTAA is a misnomer. Both entities operate unsupervised and unrestricted outside of their original mandate which was used to justify taxpayer investment.

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GTAA = 407ETR.

Both built with your tax dollars then privatized. The 'not for profit' monicker for the GTAA is a misnomer. Both entities operate unsupervised and unrestricted outside of their original mandate which was used to justify taxpayer investment.

I don't disagree that a public asset was leased to a private company. The justification of taxpayer investment to which you refer is the purpose of ground rent. The GTAA has paid hundreds of millions in ground rent to date and will continue to do so. The taxpayers are getting a very fair return for the airport lands.

The mandate of the GTAA is to operate for the benefit of the community, not the passengers, not event the airlines. It's written as plain as day in the letters patent available on their website. The mandate is clear (and not financial). Given the passenger growth and increase in air service over the past few years in Toronto, how can you argue that they've been anything but successful in delivering on their mandate?

Finally, with respect to accountability you're wrong again. The GTAA is accountable to a board of directors made up of community/government nominated members. There is direct supervision and the board (and ground lease) impose restrictions on the the GTAA's activities.

The 407 ETR Concession Company on the other hand, is a privately owned entity, more akin to the BAA (now Heathrow Airport Holdings).

-Edited because I misread the first sentence.

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You have no idea what you're talking about. All infrastructure post-handover was debt financed (no taxpayer money). The justification of taxpayer investment to which you refer is the purpose of ground rent. The GTAA has paid hundreds of millions in ground rent to date.

The mandate of the GTAA is to operate for the benefit of the community, not the passengers, not event the airlines. It's written as plain as day in the letters patent available on their website. The mandate is clear (and not financial). Given the passenger growth and increase in air service over the past few years in Toronto, how can you argue that they've been anything but successful in delivering on their mandate?

Finally, with respect to accountability you're wrong again. The GTAA is accountable to a board of directors made up of community/government nominated members. There is direct supervision and the board (and ground lease) impose restrictions on the the GTAA's activities.

The 407 ETR Concession Company on the other hand, is a privately owned entity, more akin to the BAA (now Heathrow Airport Holdings).

You are kidding, right?

Floating plastic in fish tanks? High speed (always closed for MTC) walkways? Passengers boarding aircraft out in the elements.

LBPIA has the highest landing fees on the planet. And what do the 'users' get in return? A world class airport......not. Have you travelled around the world much?

Other than the CDF, there is nothing at LBPIA that even approaches "best in class". Nothing.

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You are kidding, right?

Floating plastic in fish tanks? High speed (always closed for MTC) walkways? Passengers boarding aircraft out in the elements.

LBPIA has the highest landing fees on the planet. And what do the 'users' get in return? A world class airport......not. Have you travelled around the world much?

Other than the CDF, there is nothing at LBPIA that even approaches "best in class". Nothing.

I thought we were talking about the governance model of the airport authority. Was that just a ruse to bait me in to an argument about floating plastic fishtanks?

Just for the record, I didn't build the the new terminal or new runway in Toronto. I'm not even defending design decisions that were made 10-15 years ago and I can't really help to fix mistakes that were made in the past. I've stated nothing but fact in response to a few posts here.

If it helps for you guys to unload on an 'airport guy', have at me.

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Not part of the discussion per se, but having travelled extensively over the past seven years, from a passenger's pov I try to avoid two airports like the plague when transiting through the airport for other destinations: Heathrow, and Toronto.

And ACs move to Terminal One at LHR and the 3/4 mile uninspiring, unwelcoming walk to customs is just one more reason to head to Frankfurt or Amsterdam and back-haul to UK destinations, (or go to Edinburgh, a delightful airport).

As destinations, they're barely tolerable measured against the large US airports that I've used which are well ahead of these two with the welcome mat and ease of use.

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... and I can't really help to fix mistakes that were made in the past. I've stated nothing but fact in response to a few posts here.

If it helps for you guys to unload on an 'airport guy', have at me.

I admit that my first post on this subject was overly sarcastic. But your facts are structural, not practical. That seems to be the focus of the GTAA in many facets.

First, while the design of the airport and purchases of artwork can't be "fixed", there are literally hundreds of mistakes that were made in the past that can be fixed relatively cheaply and errors going forward that can be avoided. But I don't see a great effort at either of these... my example of the departure board at the bottom of the escalators in International is one. It had to be moved (I suppose) and got moved to an almost useless location.

Some of these past mistakes have been fixed, such as the de-ice bay issues. It took a couple of shots at it, but the de-ice bay works pretty well most of the time nowadays. It should... it costs every lander at YYZ $15, every day, year round PLUS a per-litre charge for de-ice fluid used. Pretty good revenue in a single-till model. And if it is a single till, why are there so many different buckets pouring into it? I can understand some stuff like automobile parking being specifically user-pay, but why are there so many other ways to fill the till? And why do cargo aircraft get a break? At BUF cargo aircraft pay MORE!

Other past mistakes that could be fixed are being ignored... one of my biggest beefs at YYZ is signage. Signage at YYZ is lacking and confusing everywhere. Instead of providing useful information to passengers arriving internationally, we are provided with banners telling us that the machine on our right, if it was working, is a high speed walkway. Safety signage on that machine, by the way, specifically directs passengers, almost all of whom have carry-on rollaboards, to stand on a yellow square so that they will inevitably bunch up quite unsafely at the end of the ride as their yellow square merges with the one ahead and the rollaboard belonging to that passenger joins them on their square. This has been happening for almost 10 years probably hundreds of times a day, yet no one bothers to fix it. I know GTAA people use the moving walkway, they must see these things happening.

In other places, there are signs about how YYZ is the most improved airport (is that something that you really want to tell people?) or has Cloud 10 something instead of giving people advance notice of where they need to go.

Communication and signage is so bad that it is necessary to have staff people standing just inside the customs hall doors yelling at the top of their lungs (and often, not in a very friendly way, and only in English) so that those who can understand them know where they should go. I've been in lots of airports in my time, and never have I ever seen this form of direction for inbound passengers. Maybe some of those banners up in the corridor or pictures of the kids in the rotunda should give some directions in addition to their "Welcome"s in various languages.

Interestingly, one of the identified aspects dealt with by the January 2014 Operations Disruption report was communication. So, it's being recognized that communications was bad during the disruption, but it's bad every day. How could/can it possibly be good when things get worse?

I would be happy to spend a whole day (or maybe more, if things go well) just walking through the terminal with you, cavok, or someone else at the GTAA, helping to point out some of these issues from a passenger and crew perspective (I'm sure that there is also a passenger agent perspective that should be addressed). But only if I have some commitment that a solid effort will be made to fix things.

It's not about unloading. It's about fixing.

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I thought we were talking about the governance model of the airport authority. Was that just a ruse to bait me in to an argument about floating plastic fishtanks?

Just for the record, I didn't build the the new terminal or new runway in Toronto. I'm not even defending design decisions that were made 10-15 years ago and I can't really help to fix mistakes that were made in the past. I've stated nothing but fact in response to a few posts here.

If it helps for you guys to unload on an 'airport guy', have at me.

You extol the virtues of "not-for-profit" and "accountability" to justify the current GTAA model and what I am telling you is that the result is not even close to in keeping with the exorbitant rates that this model charges the users. If you are going to pay top dollar then you should receive top product.

And as for the (occasionally) moving sidewalk, malfunctioning escalators, and trains that are shut down in the daytime for maintenance - if you cannot get the small stuff right then you will never get the big stuff right.

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"Toronto airport signage" is an oxymoron.

In fact, it's one thing at which Heathrow excels - information is everywhere, just look up.

Look up in Toronto and there's nothing but ceiling structure and art.

There are NO clocks anywhere to be found, there are no video screens in convenient*, (meaning obvious) places. Where one looks for information, one finds sculptures or vacant structure. By the evidence, one could be forgiven for concluding that art work is cheaper than video screens.

Toronto airport has no heart, no "soul", no "give-back", nothing for the harried traveller who merely desires minimal interference and maximum assistance with the task at hand and as little time in the building as possible, especially in chaotic, auditorially and visually harrassing boarding "lounges" and the pack and congestion that occurs upon the first boarding announcement preventing easy movement for people trying to find their own boarding lounge. None of it is congenial or relaxing - the overall effect is the opposite - it's a harried, upsetting experience to be in this terminal and I'm sure is a factor in some of the "occurrences" sometimes seen in IRROPs.

Frankly, we are at the point in our industry where no one wants to be in an airport terminal or even an airplane for that matter anymore. So make the journey as painless and as easy as possible. Vancouver succeeds in all of these areas because the people who put it together thought of their customers, the traveller first and not the irrelevancies. Toronto airport terminals ooze power-politics, out-of-touch foofie art-committees and the handiwork of designers who never left their offices to find out about what makes a building friendly and inviting and also work well for the primary user, the airline customer.

Toronto airport terminal misses the point of it's raison d'etre.

*example: Descend the escalators out of security into the main terminal area and try to find a large, readable departures-screen anywhere. These tiny little efforts are tucked away well past the entrance to the "D-gates" hallway. At VR, at Frankfurt, even at Heathrow the screens are huge, logically-placed and frequent. Instead of making the GTAAs priorities seem like they really wanted an art gallery, why not make it what it really is, a place where people just want to catch an airplane somewhere with as little hastle as possible.

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Malton Airport Gallery. Never have I ever seen a person in there looking at the displays. Maybe a cleaner.

I like the gigantic train station-style display in YVR. How difficult does this have to be?

And the entire flow/signage/double and triple elevator-escalator combo required to get from Viscount to Departures is a sick, sick joke:

Park, elevator, skywalk, train (2 stops), escalator, go into another parking garage, skywalk, enter area of terminal with zero signs, elevator/escalator up to Departures. Joke

Even the name- Viscount- is confusing to all but the most history-conscious. It's difficult to pronounce and if you don't know about the historical British aircraft manufacturer Vickers and Air Canada's history you've likely don't know that the PA in the train saying VY-COUNT is actually the same thing as the sign that says VIS-COUNT. Most people know Boeing 747 and little else. For non native English speakers this must be a nightmare. FFS just call it the Value Park Garage.

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Yeah... ZV. And when you leave the garage on the train, the impressive voice says that you're going to Terminal 3 and the Sheraton Gateway hotel. Not T3 and T1. Lots of worried looks, but those soon disappear as people look up their Chiropractor's phone numbers due to the ride.

And let's not forget the very well highlighted floor indicators on the elevators.

Nobody's perfect, cavok, but it shouldn't be so easy to pick out so many flaws.

Communications... communications...

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Well, what if they opened an airport and nobody came?...

The arrogance that is the GTAA is safely founded upon millions of cold-soup accepters who just want to get on their way and won't force change by commenting or leaving/avoiding.

It's a shame because it lends credence and legitimacy to any discussion regarding "competition" up Pickering way...a reasonably-priced very-high-speed train from downtown, (a la Germany or Japan), to an attractive, welcoming and intelligently-designed flight center could do it...

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The arrogance that is the GTAA is safely founded upon millions of cold-soup accepters who just want to get on their way and won't force change by commenting or leaving/avoiding.

t...

This sums up why air travel is viewed as an easy target for taxes and bloated entities, because it has no well-organized lobby group that represents the passengers. Industry groups lobby- airlines, shippers, employees etc but the lobbying is tainted by connection to profits rather than a general desire for a better system as might be the case if the users were speaking. Cold soup it is.

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