1930s–1940s The first proposal to build an airport was made in June 1929 by the Toronto Harbour Commission. The Commission proposed a four-stage plan, starting with an "air harbour" for seaplanes, while the final stages proposed filling the then-regatta course lagoon between the sandbar and Hanlan's Point.
Toronto City Council at that time agreed to the "air harbour" but "in no way—either by implication or suggestion—implies approval of the ultimate development of a combined air harbour and airport." In August 1935, Council reversed its position and approved the airport project by a vote of 15–7, against the opposition of
Toronto mayor Sam McBride (who was serving as a Councillor at the time). City Council received approval from the Government of Canada to spend $976,000 ($ in dollars) on a tunnel under the Western Gap. That fall, after construction began, a federal election was held and
William Lyon Mackenzie King was elected as prime minister. King's government reversed the previous government's decision and cancelled the tunnel.
Trans-Canada Air Lines was expected to begin operations in 1937, so in November 1936, City Council (without McBride, who died days earlier) formed an "Advisory Airport Committee" to advise on where to build a municipal airport. The committee proposed several locations and of these two were approved by the Government of Canada, which agreed to fund one-quarter of the project. The two sites were the Island and
Malton, north-west of Toronto. A seaplane and land airport would be built at the island, and an auxiliary field was to be built at Malton. The project would fill in the regatta lagoon and extend the airport site on both the east and west sides. After two days of debate, City Council voted 14–7 to approve the construction of both airports. The site of the airport had been home to
Hanlan's Point baseball stadium, numerous cottages,
Hanlan's Point Amusement Park and the regatta course. The 54 cottages and their cottagers were moved to today's
Algonquin Island (then named
Sunfish Island). The seaplane base was first used in 1938. The paved runways and the terminal building were opened in 1939. In April 1939, Toronto Council voted to name the airport
Port George VI Island Airport to commemorate an upcoming visit by
King George VI in May 1939. The first commercial passenger flight to the airport was a charter flight carrying
Tommy Dorsey and his swing band for a two-day engagement at the
Canadian National Exhibition on September 8, 1939. It was also the first airliner from the United States to arrive in Toronto. A 48-person
cable ferry service was inaugurated to the airport. During World War II, the island airport became a military training base. From 1940 until 1943, the
Royal Norwegian Air Force used the island airport as a training facility. Barracks were built nearby on the mainland at the foot of
Bathurst Street. The nearby '
Little Norway Park' is named in remembrance of the Norwegian community around the airport. For the duration of the war, the airport was used by the
Royal Canadian Air Force for training pilots and as a waypoint for transporting planes. After the war, the airport returned to civilian uses. Flying clubs and several aviation companies set up at the airport, offering services such as aircraft rentals, air freight, charter flights, pilot training and sight-seeing flights.
1950s–1960s By the end of 1952, the accumulated cost of running the island airport, and paying the interest on the debt of construction, totalled $752,000 ($ in dollars). Toronto Mayor
Allan A. Lamport, one of the original supporters in 1937 of building the island airport, began a renewed effort, along with the Harbour Commission, to expand the airport, hoping to make it profitable. He pushed for a deal to turn over Malton Airport to the Government of Canada in exchange for improvements at the island. The Government of Canada was amenable to the deal and expanding the island airport, and installed an air traffic control system in 1953, but no comprehensive agreement was yet made. An agreement was reached in July 1955, but an impasse arose between the governments over the terms of the agreement. The impasse was settled in 1957. Runway construction began in 1959 and was finished in 1960. By 1956, takeoffs and landings at the island reached 130,000 per year, many of them private flights to
Muskoka and
Haliburton. In July 1960, the airport recorded its millionth movement (take-off or landing) since air traffic control was installed in 1953. The Toronto Flying Club's move to the island from Malton in 1960 caused a large increase in traffic. For 1961, the airport recorded 212,735 movements, of which 168,272 were for local traffic, including student flights. By number of movements, the airport was the busiest in Canada. The cost of operating at the island airport forced the club to close and sell its 12 planes after less than a year, however. The airport improvements, including a new hangar, the new main runway, and night-time landing lights, were completed in 1962. The new lights allowed the first use of the airport for night-time flights since World War II when Norwegian flyers practised night-time flights. Night-time flights began on April 15, 1963, and the airport extended its closing hour from one half-hour before sun-down to midnight. The Government of Canada spent $3,118,500 on the improvements The decline was attributed to two factors: the limited access and poor service the ferry provided and the opening of the
Buttonville Municipal Airport north of Toronto in 1962. In 1967, the Harbour Commission initiated a study into converting the airport into one suitable for the passenger jets of the day, such as
DC-8s. The island airport runways were too short for jets, so a new airport would have to be built on new land reclaimed from Lake Ontario. The commission developed this further into a full redevelopment of the islands, whereby a residential development, entitled
Harbor City, would be built on the existing island airport lands, and a new airport with a runway long enough for jets would be built on a peninsula parallel to the south shore of the Toronto Islands. This plan also outlined the development of a new harbour, the Outer Harbour east of the Eastern Gap. The plan was later modified to situate the new island airport on the Outer Harbour headland, east of the islands, with road access available from the
Gardiner Expressway south along
Leslie Street. The Government of Canada ruled out the waterfront site for a major airport early in 1970, although Transport Minister Donald Jamieson suggested there would be some sort of expanded airport serving "short-hop, inter-city" flights created.
1970s–1980s By 1970, the annual operating deficit (the cost of operating the airport minus revenues collected) of the airport had reached $200,000 ($ in dollars). Toronto mayor
William Dennison warned that the airport could be closed as the Harbour Commission did not want to absorb the amount. At the time, the island airport site was to become the site of the
Harbor City residential development, although a replacement for the island airport had not been agreed upon. A 1969 proposal to build a new airport by the new headland was met with opposition from local residents and Toronto City Councillors and was dropped. With plans uncertain, the Government of Canada requested that the Harbour Commission continue to operate the airport as is in the interim. In 1972, the
Harbor City project died when the governments of Canada and Ontario proposed to build a
new major airport in
Pickering, Ontario. At the same time, the Government of Canada initiated a feasibility study of converting the island airport to a major airport for Short Takeoff and Landing (
STOL) planes. Later that year, the Harbour Commission announced plans for an aquatic park on the Outer Harbour headland, the location in the 1968 plan for the relocated island airport. In 1973,
de Havilland Aircraft of Canada, makers of the new
DHC-7 (Dash 7) STOL plane, proposed a network of STOL airports around Ontario, with the Island Airport as its hub, to the Government of Ontario cabinet ministers and the Government of Canada cabinet ministers. The first versions of the Dash 7 could support flights from the island to smaller centres, such as Sarnia, Kingston, Peterborough and Owen Sound, with a larger version able to support flights to larger centres such as London, North Bay, Ottawa and Windsor. The island airport, which operated under visual flight rules, would have to be upgraded to instrument flight rules to operate the service. De Havilland also proposed a bridge to the island airport over the Western Gap. The Government of Ontario was interested in the proposal, and asked the Canadian government to work towards development of STOL. Ontario Intergovernmental Affairs Minister
John White characterized "regional air service in southern Ontario as totally deficient." By 1974, the annual operating deficit of running the airport had reached $300,000 per year ($ in dollars), $130,000 of it in operating the
Maple City ferry. The City of Toronto decided to ask the Government of Ontario and the Government of Canada to cover the deficit. After study by the Toronto, Metro, Ontario and Canadian governments, the Government of Canada agreed to grant an annual subsidy to the Harbour Commission to operate the airport, while the Government of Ontario agreed to pay for the costs of the airport ferry. The Government of Canada put a condition on the subsidy, that intergovernmental agreement needed to be reached on the future of the airport. Agreement on the future of the airport would take several years. In January 1975,
Otonabee Airways launched the first scheduled passenger service at the airport. Otonabee operated a three-times a day service between the island airport and Montreal's international airport. 1975 was also the year that the island airport was used as the base for
Olga, a
Sikorsky S-64 Skycrane helicopter used to dismantle the crane of the new
CN Tower under construction and hoist sections of its new antenna into place on top of its concrete tower. In April 1978,
Transport Minister Otto Lang announced a plan to provide daily scheduled airline service between the airport, Ottawa and Montreal, using de Havilland Dash 7 STOL planes. The Government of Canada would invest $5 million in improvements at the airport including a covered
moving pedestrian sidewalk linking the airport with Lake Shore Boulevard. The plan was rejected by Toronto City Council, and the Canadian Transport Commission turned down the plan stating that the airport's services were not satisfactory and required upgrading.
Art Eggleton was elected Toronto mayor and a compromise was reached in 1981, when the City of Toronto agreed to a limited level of commercial STOL passenger service, and the exclusion of jet airplanes. A memorandum of understanding was signed by the THC, the City and
Transport Canada, and in 1982, the
Canadian Transport Commission issued a licence to City Centre Airways to operate Dash 7 planes between the island,
Ottawa and Montreal. In 1983, the City of Toronto, the THC, and the Government of Canada signed a tripartite agreement over operation of the airport. The agreement, in force until 2033, leases the land for the airport at a rate of $1 per year. The majority of the airport land is owned by the Government of Ontario with two small sections owned by the Government of Canada and a small section owned by Toronto. The agreement made provisions for a restricted list of aircraft allowed to use the airport due to noise levels, prohibitions on jet traffic except for MEDEVAC flights and prohibition against the construction of a fixed link between Toronto Island and the mainland. According to the Tassé report: "The Tripartite Agreement does not directly set a maximum number of flights or passengers at the Island Airport; it does, however, establish noise exposure parameters that are not to be exceeded (NEF 25), thus effectively providing restrictions on the number of flights." The number and type of flights are to stay within the Noise Exposure Forecast (NEF) 25 exposure level to neighbours. The agreement was amended in 1985 to specifically allow the new
de Havilland Dash 8, small 37–39 seat planes at the time, which are not considered STOL planes. In 1984, Air Atonabee, (as Otonabee Airways had been renamed in 1980) was re-organized into a new regional airline known as City Express. From 1984 until 1991, City Express continued and expanded its operations at the airport, peaking at 400,000 passengers annually in the mid-1980s.
1990s–2010s In 1990,
Air Ontario (later to become
Air Canada Jazz) started operating regional airline service to Ottawa and Montreal. That year, City Express folded in bankruptcy. In 1994, Jazz built a new terminal, moving out of trailers. That year, the airport was renamed the Toronto City Centre Airport. The Toronto Harbour Commission made plans to expand the airport so as to achieve self-sufficiency, as it was dependent on subsidies from the City of Toronto and had transferred much of its land to the City in exchange for an ongoing subsidy. In 1992, the THC proposed to build a bridge to the airport for safety reasons and as an improvement, at a cost of . THC's plans were initially opposed by Toronto City Council, but after the THC threatened to close the airport, an agreement was reached. Council agreed to a bridge on condition of continuing the 'no jets' ban, and that it not be built with Toronto tax dollars. After the City of Toronto was amalgamated, the plan was re-opened and a tunnel proposed instead, but the new Toronto City Council approved a bridge in 1998. In 1999, the THC was renamed the Toronto Port Authority (TPA). The Authority was expected to manage the port more like a business. A review of the airport operations concluded that the airport "is not sustainable and will likely lead to continued financial losses." Passenger volumes had declined to 140,000 annually from a peak of 400,000 in 1987. The consultants concluded that if services were upgraded to include small jets, that possibly 900,000 passengers could be carried annually by 2020. The report proposed a bridge and in runway upgrades. The only carrier operating at the airport was Air Canada affiliate Air Canada Jazz, operating flights between Toronto and Ottawa. In 2006, Jazz was forced out of the airport by REGCO, the terminal owners, which announced a new
Porter Airlines regional airline. Porter began regional airline service with flights to Ottawa in the fall of 2006 using Q400 series Dash 8 planes, 70-seat aircraft. Its entry into service was met by protesters who attempted to block passengers from the airport. Airport traffic increased to over 93,000 takeoffs and landings in 2008. To support Porter, the TPA launched the larger
David Hornell ferry in 2006. The
Maple City ferry became the back-up. In January 2009, it was announced that the TPA would purchase a second, larger ferry to support Porter's activities. The ferry was financed out of the
airport improvement fee charged to passengers. The ferry had been proposed by Porter CEO
Robert Deluce to the TPA's Board of Directors over the period of March–June 2008. The decision to approve the ferry precipitated a conflict-of-interest investigation of TPA director Colin Watson, who is a self-described friend of Deluce's, and who voted in a 5–4 decision to approve the ferry. Watson was cleared of the charge by the federal
Ethics Commissioner Mary Dawson in June 2009. The new ferry, named
Marilyn Bell I (the name was chosen after a public naming contest), went into service on January 22, 2010. At its annual meeting on September 3, 2009, the TPA announced that it would rename the airport after William Avery "Billy" Bishop, a
Canadian First World War flying ace. The proposal drew criticism from TPA critics such as
Adam Vaughan, charging "the port authority is putting together a "feel-good story" to prevent people from asking tough questions about how the island airport is governed." On November 10, 2009, after approval from Transport Canada, the TPA officially renamed the airport to
Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport. It is the second airport in Canada, after
Owen Sound Billy Bishop Regional Airport, to be named for Bishop. The airport continued to be listed in aeronautical publications and weather reports as Toronto City Centre Airport, until February 11, 2010. Later in September, Jazz chief executive officer Joseph Randell reiterated the comments stating that it intended to restore service as early as April 2010. Passenger traffic increased 46% from 2009 to 2010. In January 2010, the TPA announced that it would spend on upgrades to the airport. The upgrades included a new Equipment Maintenance Building, apron paving, equipment upgrades and a noise barrier to deflect plane maintenance noise out over the lake. The expense would be recouped from the Airport Improvement Fee charged to passengers. In February 2010, Air Canada filed suit against the TPA to get access to the airport, access it had lost when Porter had evicted Jazz in 2006. On March 29, 2010, the Federal Court ruled that Air Canada would have a hearing in July 2010 of its objections to the TPA process. On March 7, 2010, the first half of the Porter's new terminal opened. The new terminal, estimated to cost , was completed in early 2011. Dismantling of the building started in November 2011. By April 2012 the terminal building had been moved from its original location and was temporarily residing on the grass to the south of runway 24. In 2014, the TPA announced that it would move the terminal closer to Hanlan's Point and turn the facility into a restaurant for the general aviation community at the airport. In January 2015, Porter Airlines Holdings and City Centre Terminal sold the passenger terminal to a consortium known as Nieuport Aviation Infrastructure that includes InstarAGF Asset Management, an alternative-investment manager, Kilmer Van Nostrand Co, an investment firm controlled by
Larry Tanenbaum, the chairman of
Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment,
Partners Group, a Swiss private equity firm, and institutional clients advised by
J.P. Morgan Asset Management. The buyers did not disclose a price; Bloomberg, however, reported a possible sale price of more than . Public records indicated that
Scotiabank held a mortgage of . In June 2016, a three-year project to update the runways at the airport began and was completed in October 2018. The project repaved runways 06/24 and 08/26 and upgraded the electrical and lighting systems. The airport decommissioned runway 15/33, due to its lack of use and operational restrictions, and converted it into a taxiway. In October 2016, PortsToronto approved a expansion of the terminal, including a new gate, and room for U.S Customs preclearance if it is approved in the future, which was facilitated in March 2026.
Cancelled expansion plans In April 2013, Porter announced a conditional purchase of 12
Bombardier CS100 passenger jets, with an option to purchase 18 more. Porter president Robert Deluce announced that the airline would seek an extension of the main runway by , at either end, to accommodate the longer landing and takeoff requirements of the aircraft. The airline would also seek an exemption for the CS100 aircraft from the jet ban at the airport imposed in the 1983 Tripartite Agreement of the airport. The changes would require the agreement of the Government of Canada, the Toronto Port Authority and the City of Toronto. The TPA announced that it would await the direction of Toronto City Council on the potential expansion. A new community group "NoJetsTO" was formed to collect opposition to the plan to allow jets at the airport. The City of Toronto started consultations in September 2013, both online and at "town hall" sessions, to produce a report from staff for presentation to Council. As consultations began, Porter increased its request to extensions at each end of the runway. The Toronto Port Authority notified the City of Toronto that it was seeking an extension to the tripartite agreement beyond 2033 as a condition of the runway extension plan. The staff report was released to the public on November 28, 2013, and staff recommended putting off consideration of the plan until 2015, due to incomplete information and the various unresolved issues, including the CS100 noise information, Transport Canada regulations, and Toronto Port Authority requirements. The report also noted that the airport does not have a "Master Plan" unlike other airports, and staff suggested is essential for consideration to extend the tripartite agreement. The plan is to be discussed by the City Council executive committee and full Council in December 2013. Executive committee of Council agreed to defer its consideration of the proposal until January 2014. In January 2014, the Toronto Port Authority announced that it would seek from the Government of Canada to expand infrastructure around the airport if the expansion plans and jets are approved for use at the airport. In April 2014, Toronto City Council voted to defer approval of the plan, voting 44–0 to defer and wait for the Port Authority to produce plans for the airport. The Council refused to support spending any City money on the proposal. Council ordered the Port Authority to produce an environmental assessment (EA), preliminary runway design and updated airport master plan, as well as produce a figure for a proposed passenger cap on the facility. Council informed the TPA that it sought a maximum figure of 2.4 million, regardless of whether jets are implemented, while the TPA suggested an interim cap of 2.976 million, and deferred agreeing to a permanent cap figure. The TPA issued Requests For Proposals to private firms to conduct the EA and preliminary runway designs. In April 2015, Air Canada, also a user of the airport, stated that it was opposed to the introduction of jets at the airport. "Air Canada's position on this matter is crystal clear. We do not support jets at Billy Bishop," said Derek Vanstone of the airline. Air Canada commissioned a study that concluded that the expansion would cost in public expenditure. In March 2015, PortsToronto released preliminary information on the impact of jets as part of a Master Planning Exercise. The study envisioned that the runways would be extended by at either end (to a total length of ). The number of daily slots would increase to 242 from 202; the number of passengers would increase from two million to four million annually; aircraft movements would increase from 114,000 to 138,000; the marine exclusion zone around the runways would expand in width by to ; and the peak number of passengers at one time would grow from 944 to 1,761. The proposal would also include a jet blast barrier and a potential noise barrier. PortsToronto released the terms of reference for its environmental study in August 2015. Under the tripartite management agreement, all three signatories must agree to re-open it; without one, the proposal cannot proceed. In November 2015, after the federal election that saw the
Liberal Party of Canada return to power, the new transport minister
Marc Garneau announced that the government would not re-open the tripartite agreement to allow the expansion. Porter Airlines and PortsToronto had hoped that the government would not follow through on its promise and asked for the Government of Canada to wait until studies were complete. Pratt & Whitney stated that the CS100 would have been quieter compared to the existing turboprop aircraft currently used at the airport. On December 8, PortsToronto announced it would not complete the expansion proposal reports for Council, ending work after any current technical studies were complete. Porter subsequently developed a hub at Pearson and reduced flights at Bishop airport.
Construction of a pedestrian tunnel connection to the mainland In 2015, a pedestrian tunnel to the airport was opened, after a previous plan to build a bridge was cancelled. A tunnel was first proposed to connect to the island airport in 1935. A tunnel was started, but cancelled and filled in. Since 1938, a car
ferry has provided service to and from the airport. In 1997, Toronto City Council approved a bridge to connect to the island airport. In 2003, Council cancelled the bridge after Toronto Mayor
David Miller was elected on a platform to cancel the bridge. The Port Authority bought two new car ferries instead. In 2009, the
Toronto Port Authority (TPA), operator of the airport, first proposed to build a pedestrian tunnel connecting the airport with the mainland, at a cost of $38 million. The TPA proposed that the project be paid for primarily through federal and provincial economic stimulus funds. Critics such as federal MP
Olivia Chow and Toronto City Councillor Adam Vaughan criticized the proposal as benefiting only a small number of privileged users, as well as being a subsidy to Porter Airlines' business. The project was not included on a City-approved list of projects submitted to the Government of Canada. In October 2009, the TPA, having not yet received approval for the tunnel project, announced that it was now too late to proceed if the project was to meet the March 2011 completion date condition for receiving federal infrastructure stimulus funds and withdrew the project. In January 2010, the TPA announced that it was seeking a private-sector partner to build a pedestrian tunnel. The cost was now estimated at $45 million. This was to be financed through a $5/flight increase in the Airport Fee paid by passengers. On July 12, 2010, the TPA announced that it intended to begin construction of the tunnel as early as 2011, after conducting an environmental assessment. The tunnel would not be built on or over City of Toronto land, meaning City approval would not be required. The TPA also announced that an opinion poll conducted on behalf of the TPA suggested that "a majority (56%) of Torontonians support a pedestrian tunnel to the island airport." The TPA conducted a private environmental assessment of the project and decided to proceed in April 2011. The TPA then short-listed three companies to respond to a request for proposals to build the tunnel. The RFP ended in October 2011. In July 2011, an agreement was reached with the City of Toronto, exchanging lands with the Port Authority, enabling the Port Authority to proceed on the pedestrian tunnel. The agreement allows the Port Authority to expand their taxi and parking space for the airport. In exchange, the City of Toronto had a water main to serve the Islands included as part of the project. but eventually took 40 to complete. Tunnelling contractor Technicore Underground, Inc. had to deal with left over metal pilings from the 1930s tunnel project and contaminated soil. The pilings themselves were not a surprise, their details being in the TPA archives, but the pilings had fractured much of the rock in the tunnel area, meaning that the strength of the rock around the tunnel area was weaker and needed extra shoring up. There was also a dispute over payments and Technicore filed a $10 million lien against the project alleging unpaid work. To deal with the delays, the contractor applied for an exemption from the city's noise bylaw to work around the clock. Its application for round-the-clock work was denied, but it was allowed to work longer hours until 11 p.m. The Toronto Port Authority announced that the project would be complete during the winter of 2014/2015 and blamed the delay on the winter of 2013/2014 being colder than in previous years and ice build-up slowed progress. The agency announced a further delay to the late spring of 2015. The project finally opened on July 30, 2015.
2020-present: Facility and agreement update In June 2023, the Government of Canada announced that it will be spending up to to build U.S border preclearance facility at the airport. It is expected to open by 2025 and will enable flights from the island airport to at least ten new U.S destinations. In June 2023, Air Canada opened a joint venture lounge under the Air Canada Cafe brand with Aspire, owned by
Swissport, in the domestic zone of the terminal. This marked the first lounge at the airport. In 2024, PortsToronto presented a plan to conform to new safety requirements of Transport Canada to extend runways for run-off safety. The agency presented three proposals to conform, and add roadways and taxiways. In conjunction with this, the agency asked for an extension of the tripartite agreement of 40 years, which it argued was necessary to finance the runway extension. The agency pushed for the maximum runway extension, with plans to increase flights, a consistent position of the agency. This was turned down by Toronto City Council, which approved a minimum runway extension and a twelve-year extension to the tripartite agreement. City Council, led by Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow, cited the previous controversy over the airport and chose the easiest path forward, not wanting to reopen the debate. In 2025, it was announced that Hoverlink had reached an agreement with
PortsToronto to establish a terminal for its proposed
hovercraft ferry service to
Region of Niagara at Billy Bishop Airport. On March 10, 2026, the preclearance facility was officially inaugurated making Billy Bishop the ninth Canadian airport to operate a preclearance facility. Air Canada announced that it would launch transborder flights from the airport to New York-LaGuardia, Boston, Chicago-O'Hare, and Washington-Dulles following the opening.
Ford push for jets and expansion In 2026, Ontario Premier
Doug Ford once again raised the topic of allowing jets at the island airport, a suggestion immediately supported by the Toronto Port Authority. He claimed that he had internal polling numbers that showed 70% of Torontonians supported expanding the airport. Ford later pronounced that his government would 'take over control of the airport', with plans to expand its runway for jets under discussion. His government plans to expropriate the municipally-owned lands of the airport in an attempt to remove Toronto City Council from the administration of the airport. Any such plan would likely need the participation of the Canadian federal government. Expansion remains opposed by local Councillors, local community associations and the "NoJetsTo" and "Parks Not Planes" advocacy groups. Toronto Mayor
Olivia Chow said she was opposed to jets at the airport due to the noise. The "NoJetsTo" advocacy group has remobilised to oppose the expansion. On March 23, 2026, Ford announced the provincial government would be taking over the City of Toronto's place on the agreement that governs the airport in order to expand the runway to accommodate jet aircraft. It was also announced the island airport would be declared a special economic zone, allowing the provincial government to suspend provincial and municipal laws for a given project. ==Airlines and destinations==