Toronto has the potential to join the ranks of cities embracing advanced air mobility (AAM) services, according to a white paper published today by the Canadian Advanced Air Mobility Consortium. The report, prepared for the group by Nexa Advisors, envisages that the city will first see the deployment of eVTOL aircraft and remotely piloted aircraft systems (drones) for functions such as the transportation of patients and medical equipment.
The new paper, entitled Advanced Air Mobility Comes to Toronto: Exciting Opportunities to Improve Urban Mobility of People, Goods, and Services, also describes the potential for zero-emissions flights in electric aircraft supporting new regional air connections over distances that are not now economically viable for air carriers, as well as providing much-needed transportation options for multiple indigenous people’s communities across Ontario province. It mentions potential eVTOL services out of Toronto’s Pearson International Airport and Billy Bishop City Airport, to communities such as Kitchener, Peterborough, and Barrie in Ontario, and also across the border to U.S. cities including Detroit, Pittsburgh, and Cleveland as well as Buffalo, Rochester, and Syracuse in New York.
Freight delivery operations are another anticipated business model for eVTOL aircraft, according to CAAM. It sees their adoption for this purpose as a way to relieve congestion and adverse environmental impact from road vehicles.
CAAM has asked Nexa, a Washington, D.C.-based financial and economic consultancy, to assess how many full-time permanent jobs might be created by the development of AAM in the Greater Toronto area. It will also seek to quantify the potential for the industry to benefit the community through increasing tax revenues and generating other economic activity.
The group, which has already conducted similar work to stimulate AAM development in the Vancouver area, sees public-private partnerships as the most likely means to fund the industry’s growth.
“The introduction of a sustainable, equitable, and profitable advanced air mobility industry in Canada and the Toronto region will create innovative solutions to existing environmental, infrastructure, and economic challenges,” said Stephen Lund, CEO of regional investment agency Toronto Global. “We welcome CAAM’s paper, and its recommendations, as we seek to leverage this innovative technology and pioneer new opportunities for advanced air mobility to create better outcomes for the Toronto region.”