Submitted by the District of Muskoka
Travelling to Muskoka by airplane has never been as safe and stress-free. While the COVID-19 pandemic has interrupted regular service since March, FLYGTA has resumed flights on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays from Billy Bishop City Airport (YTZ) to Muskoka Airport (YQA) in 30 minutes, eliminating the hassle of traffic gridlock to and from Muskoka.
Pandemic measures are in place for all flights in accordance with Transport Canada guidelines. The terminal and planes are thoroughly cleaned both before and after flights.
Social distancing is enforced by staff and safety stickers, labels and decals have been placed throughout the terminals. Masks are required both during the flight and in the terminals and temperatures of the staff are regularly monitored.
“We are excited to see FLYGTA Airlines resume weekend summer flights to Muskoka,” says Len O’Connor, CEO Muskoka Airport. “With a spike in tourism in the north, we hope travellers will consider getting out of their cars and into an airplane for a quick and safe trip to Muskoka.”
FLYGTA’s flights are affordable and priced for every traveller. Flex pricing is offered, meaning that the earlier you book the better the price. FLYGTA also provides free parking at its terminals, further reducing the cost of travel. No line-ups or early check-ins are required, making the flights very efficient and reducing contact with staff and other passengers.
“We waited for an ideal time to return to service,” says Chris Nowrouzi, CEO of FLYGTA Group. “With most of the province in stage three and Ontarians looking north for their staycations, we remain dedicated to serving the needs of the regional traveller. We encourage Ontarians to explore our flights and packages and hope together we can support the safe return of Canadian tourism.”
Don’t miss out on Doppler!
Sign up here to receive our email digest with links to our most recent stories.
Local news in your inbox three times per week!
Click here to support local news
While it may, maybe, be safe to fly one still has to negotiate getting to and from the airports and past all the stuff inside them. Not easy to do.
The other thing that has to cross one’s mind is that if the plane carries say (and this is just a guess I admit) 70 passengers and if you fill that plane to this capacity for every flight, then compare this to the capacity of highway 11 beside the airport.
If you space cars about 88 feet apart and drive them at 100 k/hr and put one person per car, then one lane of the northbound highway can carry about one car per second = 60 people. Therefore the two northbound lanes could carry more people at one per car at the speed limit in one minute than each plane flight.
Remember you had to get to the airport in the city somehow and you have to have a car, somehow, to leave the airport in Muskoka as I note very few cottages lining the actual runway.
Even if I am wrong by a factor of 10 or maybe even 100, do you really think these plane flights are going to make any significant difference to the congestion on the road?
A few people will enjoy the novelty, at a cost, of a plane flight to Muskoka and if the weather cooperates they may even get to and from Muskoka on the schedule posted, but all this will really not make any measurable difference to traffic congestion or tourism business in Muskoka.
The other thing to think about is that if you just drive north from Toronto, it will take you a little over an hour and a quarter to get to Muskoka Airport, at the speed limit that nobody in Ontario obeys so if you discount getting to the airport in the city and getting from Muskoka airport to your final destination then the flight will actually save you maybe an hour (going from 1.25 hr. driving to .33 hr flying based on flight time only.) Not much really and as noted, arrival at Muskoka is not anywhere near the end of your journey to your cottage.
Now I know I have not figured in the item people like to call “gridlock” and accidents can slow traffic too. I’d suggest that if our MTO has done a good job of design for capacity and safety and the OPP enforces as needed to curb poor drivers, then this gridlock might be less of an issue.
And last, consider a train. A single train can carry hundreds of passengers, not just 70.
It leaves from right beside the Billy Bishop airport but it can also pick up at any station along the way.
Similarly, it can drop you off at any station along the way too.
Sure it is not as quick as a plane but weather seldom bothers a train schedule.
One can run a lot of trains if the demand is there.
Trains could run faster than cars with some track upgrades and good scheduling.
There is virtually no limit to what you cant take with you on a train, no baggage limit and no extra bag charges.
Modern light rail uses less fuel per passenger mile than a plane and if we wanted to go all the way, the train could be run on electricity, thus eliminating all the polluting effects of burning oil for fuel. This is unlikely to happen, maybe ever, for a plane.
All this is worth thinking about before we start dancing with pleasure to celebrate a few flights to Muskoka.
A plane still has a place however, and I’d suggest that if the flight came direct from maybe further away, it could make sense. Without Covid, direct flights from say NY, Atlanta, Buffalo, Detroit, Montreal, Ottawa etc. might make good sense as a car or train does not work well over distances greater than about 500 km.
I just don’t see Toronto to Muskoka as anything but a sort of “feel good” PR item.