Local Officials Fighting to Save YQG Tower

The fight continues to save the control tower at Windsor's international airport.

Local officials including the Windsor Flying Club and local pilots are calling on the federal government to remove the Windsor International Airport from NAV Canada's list to remove air traffic control and make it an uncontrolled facility. 

Speaking Tuesday, Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens says a lot of work has been done over the years to grow the airport.

"You know where we were back in 2009 and you've seen where we've come in 2019 — a 300 per cent increase in traffic at Windsor airport, almost 400,000 people walked through this terminal last year and flew in and out of Windsor airport," he says. "The turnaround story has been phenomenal."

Dilkens says he understands the need to find efficiencies during COVID-19, but Windsor airport is not the place to do that.

"Keep the control tower here at YQG so we can continue to build the success of this airport," he says. "I think of, of course, Air Canada, you think of the resumption of Porter, West Jet, Sunwing and others. There are many other airlines folks, that we're working on attracting and their business is still going on preparing for the resumption of flights."

Dante Albano is a Corporate Pilot in Windsor, and says they're fighting for this in the name of safety and all pilots know the benefit of having air traffic control.

"Especially one like this with a complex airspace around us with Detroit so close," he says. "It's like traffic lights, air traffic control is like when you get to a busy intersection and the traffic light will tell you who can go first, who has to stop, where you can go and then without air traffic control, it's like when it turns into a four-way stop and the traffic lights are broken."

According to Dilkens, if NAV Canada removed the Windsor air traffic control tower, it would eliminate commercial passenger air travel and would create significant safety problems for cargo and private planes due to the complex airspace of having five airports in he Windsor-Essex and metro Detroit areas, including public, private, U.S. National Guard and U.S. coast guard.

Windsor West MP Brian Masse is calling on Transport Minister Marc Garneau to provide a clear and definitive answer that the future of Windsor's airport is secure and that air traffic control services will be maintained.