Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport (YTZ)

What is Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport?

Billy Bishop is the airport downtown business travellers prefer, because a Porter flight from Ottawa can have you in a King Street meeting forty minutes after the wheels touch. It is also the airport most confusing to arrive at for the first time, because the transport is on the other side of the water. This page is the mainland side of it.

Getting between the island and the mainland

The terminal is on the island; the city is across the Western Gap, a channel about 120 metres wide. Two crossings serve passengers:

• The pedestrian tunnel. Elevators and escalators take you down from the mainland pavilion on Eireann Quay, moving walkways carry you under the channel, and elevators bring you up into the terminal. It is open at all times the airport operates and takes about six minutes with luggage.
• The ferry. A short ride — about ninety seconds — from the dock beside the pavilion, running every fifteen minutes. It is the choice for anyone who would rather not take the tunnel, and it is free.

The mainland pavilion at the top of the tunnel is where every form of ground transport meets the airport: the airport's own free shuttle bus to the Fairmont Royal York on Front Street, the taxi stand, the rideshare pickup and — for a pre-arranged chauffeur — the drop and the meeting point. The airport's own page has the shuttle schedule and the tunnel hours.

Where the chauffeur meets you

At the mainland pavilion on Eireann Quay. There is no curb on the island, so a chauffeur cannot meet you at the terminal door; the pickup point is the pavilion doors at the top of the tunnel, and the booking asks for the flight number so the timing follows the aircraft plus the crossing. Sixty minutes of waiting are included from touchdown on international arrivals, thirty on domestic. For a departure, the chauffeur drops you and the bags at the pavilion and the tunnel or the ferry takes you across. The two-airport connection to Pearson has its own page.

Porter and Air Canada Express: where you can fly

Porter Airlines built the airport into a business hub with Dash 8-400 turboprops: Ottawa, Montreal and Quebec City on an hourly weekday pattern; Halifax, Moncton, Fredericton, Saint John, St John's, Thunder Bay, Sault Ste Marie, Sudbury, Timmins and Windsor; and the US cities that matter to Bay Street — Newark, Boston, Chicago Midway, Washington Dulles — with seasonal routes to Florida and Myrtle Beach. Air Canada Express adds Montreal and Ottawa. Porter's jet network flies from Pearson, not the island; check the airport on your ticket, because the two are 27 km apart.

Downtown from Billy Bishop

The airport is ten minutes from the Financial District, and a chauffeur is still the right answer for a passenger with luggage or a schedule. From the pavilion the chauffeur drives Lake Shore Boulevard or Queens Quay east, reaching the Fairmont Royal York, the Ritz-Carlton, the Shangri-La and the hotels on Front and Wellington in ten to fifteen minutes; King West and the Entertainment District in ten; Yorkville and the Bloor hotels in twenty; the east end and the Distillery in fifteen. In the 4–7 pm window Lake Shore and the Gardiner ramps slow, and the Ontario 511 boards on our live traffic page show it.

Billy Bishop to Pearson, and the connection

There is no direct public link between Toronto's two airports. The transfer is the Gardiner Expressway west and Highway 427 north — 27 km and 35 to 50 minutes — and the connection between a Porter arrival and a Pearson international departure has two clocks: the inbound flight's live arrival and the outbound check-in cut-off, three hours before an international flight and two before domestic or US pre-clearance. We ask for both flight numbers and plan the margin; the route page works the arithmetic through, and the terminal finder tells you which Pearson terminal the departure uses.

Beyond downtown: Ontario from the island

Billy Bishop passengers do not all stay downtown. Mississauga and the airport strip are thirty minutes west; Hamilton an hour on the QEW; Niagara Falls ninety minutes; Kitchener-Waterloo an hour and a half on the Gardiner and the 401; Barrie the same on the 400; Markham, Vaughan and the north of the city forty minutes on the DVP or the Allen. Every address is quoted by the engine; the route pages give the timing by hour.

Vehicles at the pavilion

The pavilion curb is short, and the vehicle class is chosen for the passengers and bags rather than the venue. The Executive Sedan for one or two; the Premium Sedan for the executive arriving from Newark for a board meeting; the Luxury SUV for a family from Halifax with luggage; the Executive Sprinter for a group — a Sprinter can use the pavilion curb, a coach cannot. Capacities for every class are on the fleet page.

The fixed fare from Billy Bishop

The reservation engine quotes a fixed fare for the pickup at the pavilion and your exact destination and vehicle class: the chauffeur, the vehicle, tolls, taxes, curbside pickup at the pavilion and sixty minutes of waiting from touchdown on international arrivals (thirty on domestic). It does not change with the Gardiner or the hour. Gratuity is at your discretion; the flat-rate page explains the whole fare. Corporate travellers who use Billy Bishop weekly put every leg on a corporate account with cost centres and a monthly invoice.

Get a fixed fare from Billy Bishop

Practicalities the airport does not put on the ticket

The tunnel elevators are the bottleneck on a busy evening; allow a few extra minutes before a departure. The airport's own shuttle to the Royal York is free and useful for a traveller with hand luggage heading to Front Street; it is not a substitute for a car with three suitcases. Rideshare and taxi pickups are at the pavilion too, and on a rainy Friday at 6 pm the queue for both is the argument for having a name on a board. Winter closes the ferry occasionally for ice; the tunnel does not close.

What the confirmation contains

Every booking returns an email with the flight number we are tracking, the pavilion meeting point, the destination, the vehicle class and the fare; on the day it is followed by the chauffeur's name, mobile number and the vehicle plate. Changes are a reply or a call at any hour; a delayed flight changes nothing.

The waterfront, and what the drive actually looks like

Eireann Quay sits at the foot of Bathurst Street where it meets Queens Quay West, in the middle of the Harbourfront and the condominium towers that have replaced the old port. The chauffeur reaches it from the east along Queens Quay past the ferry docks and the Harbourfront Centre, or from the north down Bathurst past Fort York, or from the Gardiner via the Lake Shore Boulevard ramps. On a summer weekend the whole waterfront is slow with festival and beach traffic; on a weekday evening it is the Gardiner ramps that decide the time. The pavilion has a short curb, a turning loop and the tunnel entrance, and pre-arranged vehicles stop briefly to load — which is why the chauffeur waits nearby rather than at the door when a flight is late, and steps to the pavilion when you emerge.

Corporate use and the standing booking

A large share of Billy Bishop passengers fly the same route weekly — Toronto to Ottawa or Montreal on Monday, back on Thursday — and their companies book the pavilion pickup as a standing run on a corporate account: the same chauffeur where possible, the flight number for the week supplied by the assistant, one line per trip on the monthly invoice. For a visiting board member arriving from New York on Porter, the Premium Sedan waiting at the pavilion is the first impression of the company.

What the confirmation contains, in short

The flight number, the pavilion meeting point, the destination, the class, the fare, and on the day the chauffeur's name, mobile and plate; changes by reply or call at any hour.

Billy Bishop by the hour

Porter's schedule is a business schedule: the first departures before 7 am, banks at 8, midday and 5 pm, and the last arrivals around 11 pm. The pavilion is busiest at the evening bank, when the Ottawa and Montreal arrivals land within minutes of each other and the taxi stand queues; a name board is worth most then. On summer weekends the Harbourfront traffic makes the last kilometre slow at any hour; in winter the tunnel is the crossing and the ferry is occasionally suspended for ice. The airport's site has the live board, the shuttle schedule and the tunnel hours.

The two-airport family

Not every Billy Bishop passenger is a banker. Families flying Porter to Halifax or Moncton in summer connect from a Pearson arrival the same way, with luggage that the tunnel elevators handle and a child seat fitted at booking. The Luxury SUV at the pavilion, and the same SUV at the Pearson end, is the usual booking.

Ottawa and Montreal, by air or by road

For a Toronto traveller heading to Ottawa or Montreal, Porter from Billy Bishop is the fastest door-to-door option most of the time — and on the days it is not, because of weather or a cancelled bank, we run the road: Toronto to Ottawa is about 450 km and four and a half hours on the 401 and the 416, Montreal about 540 km and five and a half. Both are quoted as fixed fares; the chauffeur who was meant to drop you at the pavilion drives you to the destination instead, and the fare is confirmed before the car moves.