CANADA: Councillor concerned Windsor planes risk hitting birds

Coun. Fulvio Valentinis said an expanded airport wood lot could lead to animals on runway

One Windsor city councillor remains concerned about a master plan for the Windsor Airport even though the rest of his colleagues approved it Monday night.

Fulvio Valentinis says quadrupling the size of a woodlot on the airport property is problematic.

"If you've got a 300-acre woodlot, you're going to be attracting a lot more air fowl that's not compatible with airports coming and going," Valentinis said. "They're going to have to put a fence around this because otherwise you're going to have animals, whether it's deer, whether it's coyotes, whether it's rabbits, running on to the runway."

The woodlot issue has been deferred for a more in-depth discussion.

http://www.cbc.ca

 

Previous story:

Three years after the City of Windsor took over operations at Windsor Airport and established “Your Quick Gateway”, a master plan for future land use at the airport has been prepared and will go to council for approval. The goal of the master plan is to ensure cost-effective development of the 813 hectare site through the year 2031. The plan makes note that Windsor is located within an 8-hour drive from half of North America’s population and expands on how we could be a strategic location for future industry.
The master plan indicates that the Windsor International Airport has the “potential to become Ontario’s primary western business gateway and a major multi-modal hub”.

Plans for future use at the airport include:

• 250 hectares of land for a business park
• expanded cargo facilities
• a new terminal located between the airport’s runways
• an extension of the main runway to 10,000 feet
• a new taxiway north of the main runway to accommodate future business park needs
• plans to accommodate Boeing 747-400 cargo jets
• plans for a new control tower closer to Walker Road
• reconfiguration of the passenger terminal to meet passenger growth trends
• creation of a dedicated de-icing facility
• establishment of a bulk aircraft fuel storage facility

http://windsorite.ca