Rumors regarding the fate of Toronto-area Buttonville Municipal Airport (CYKZ) have swirled for years, but the airfield—which was designated as an official airport in 1962—is permanently closing today. At its peak, CYKZ was one of Canada’s busiest airports, seeing 220,000 operations a year.
The Sifton family had run the airport for the past 60 years, with Derek Sifton in charge for the past three-and-a-half decades. His father bought out his partners at CYKZ back in 1963 and turned it into a family business.
In May, it was announced that the airport would be shut down, with aviation activities winding down over the past few months. “It’s been a challenge going through it and doing what we’re doing,” said Sifton, “but I knew this day would come.”
One of his last tasks was supervising the decommissioning of the privately-owned field, which includes more than 350,000 sq ft of hangar and office space. Sifton also oversaw the final departures of more than 200 aircraft to their new homes.
“As part of the Canadian air regulations, we’ve had to demark all the markings on the runway with a grinder; we’ve done that, and we’ve turned all the runway and taxiway signs backwards so you can’t see what they are. The runway lights are off, and big X's [are] on the runway and the taxiways,” he told AIN. “Then on Thursday, I hand my airport operating certificate to Transport Canada, and we are done.”
Ultimately, CYKZ’s demise came down to finances. “Unlike in the United States, where there is a lot of [airport] funding from municipalities, our funding dried up in 2008,” said Sifton. That year, possibly in light of the global financial crisis, the Greater Toronto Airport Authority ended its annual financial support commitment to the airport, leading the Sifton family to sell part of the airport ownership to commercial real estate company Cadillac Fairview soon after.
“It was a family-run business up to the time we brought Cadillac Fairview on board,” said Sifton, who operated the airport as president and CEO of Million Air Toronto, the lone service provider on the field, and one of the longest-tenured franchisees in the chain, dating back to 1985. “They were small partners, then bigger partners, and eventually bought us out.”
CYKZ is located in Markham, Ontario—Canada’s equivalent of Silicon Valley and home to the in-country headquarters of many Fortune 500 companies. Economic impact studies commissioned by the airport showed that it contributed $150 million a year to the local communities.
While CYKZ saw some scheduled service over the years and functioned as a GA reliever for Pearson International Airport (CYYZ), its growth was stunted early on, according to Sifton. “Our main runway is just under 4,000 feet,” he explained. “That was really our limiting factor. At the end of the day, we were boxed in with industry all around us, not to mention communities.”
Demolition work has already begun on the field, including the removal of fuel storage tanks. According to Sifton, the entire 170-acre airport property will be cleared to make room for a new industrial park. “The land value was worth more for alternate use than as an airport, and we made the tough decision to move forward,” he said. “We were worth more dead than alive as an aviation asset.”