Out and back in a day
A morning meeting in Montreal, Ottawa or the northeastern US and dinner at home. The airport’s location removes the hour at each end that makes the same trip painful from Pearson.
Billy Bishop · YTZ
Billy Bishop airport limo and chauffeur service
Toronto’s other airport sits on the island at the foot of Bathurst Street, a few minutes from the financial district. Everything about a booking here is shaped by that proximity and by the channel in between.
The crossing, and why it defines the booking
Vehicles stop at the mainland terminal. Passengers cross the Western Channel on foot, through the pedestrian tunnel with its elevators at either end, or on the ferry that makes one of the shortest scheduled crossings anywhere. Nothing drives across.
The practical consequence is that the drop-off point is fixed and the walk is part of the journey. A chauffeur who knows this pulls into the right approach off Queens Quay rather than joining the queue of confused traffic at the end of Bathurst, and the passenger is out of the car and into the terminal without a detour.
It also means luggage is worth thinking about. Anything you bring has to come through the tunnel with you, which is one more reason short-haul travellers here carry less than they would flying out of Pearson.
Who uses it
The same-day return
Billy Bishop exists for a specific kind of business trip, and it does that trip better than anywhere else in the region.
Financial district commuters
Offices on Bay, King and Wellington are a short drive from the terminal. For a passenger whose desk is downtown, this is the closest departure gate in the country.
Late arrivals into the core
Landing at the waterfront at 9:00pm and being at a hotel on Front Street ten minutes later is a materially different evening from landing at Pearson.
Getting to the foot of Bathurst
From the financial district it is a short run down to the lake — a matter of minutes in ordinary conditions, longer when the Gardiner is backed up or the waterfront is hosting something. The approach along Queens Quay West past Bathurst Quay is narrow and gets congested at peak, so departure pickups from a Bay Street tower are timed with a little more margin than the raw distance implies.
From further out the calculation changes and it is worth asking whether the trip should go here at all. If you are starting in Vaughan or Mississauga, the drive across the city to the waterfront can undo the time the airport saves, and Pearson is usually the better answer.
Questions
Flying from the island
No, and no car can. The airport is on the island; the road ends at the mainland terminal building at the foot of Bathurst. You are dropped there and cross the Western Channel either through the pedestrian tunnel or on the ferry. It is the one structural difference between this airport and every other one we serve.
Barely. The tunnel runs continuously and takes a few minutes on foot including the elevators at each end. The ferry crossing itself is famously short, though it runs on a cycle rather than on demand. Either way the crossing is measured in minutes, which is why passengers routinely arrive far closer to departure here than they would at Pearson.
On the mainland side, after you have come back through the tunnel or off the ferry. There is no meeting you at a baggage carousel because there is barely a baggage wait — the walk from aircraft to mainland is short enough that most passengers are outside within minutes of the doors opening.
For a single traveller with no luggage, often not. For someone landing at 5:00pm with a client dinner at 6:00, arriving at a meeting straight off a flight, or carrying anything they would rather not carry across the tunnel and up Bathurst, it is the entire point of the trip.
Yes, and it matters here for a different reason. Short-haul schedules compress, so a thirty-minute delay is proportionally enormous and the whole day slides. Give us the flight number and the pickup slides with it.
Related
A same-day return that turns into a full schedule downtown is better booked as executive chauffeur service than as two transfers. Firms whose people fly this route weekly hold a corporate account, and for trips within driving distance it is worth reading long-distance chauffeur service before booking the flight at all.
Reserve
Ten minutes from your desk to the terminal
Tell us the flight and where you are starting from, and we will time the pickup for the crossing.