GTAA publish Frontier report on Toronto Pearson’s economic impact

The Greater Toronto Airports Authority (GTAA) has published a report quantifying Toronto Pearson Airport’s economic impact. The report was produced jointly by Frontier (Europe), MNP (a leading Canadian accounting, tax and business consultancy) and Quod (a UK-based consultancy specialising in planning and development economics).

The analysis estimates the airport’s economic impact in three parts:

• Primary impacts: the direct, indirect and induced impacts which include jobs generated from on-going operations at the airport;
• Secondary impacts: jobs facilitated by inbound visitor spending; and
• Tertiary or ‘catalytic’ impacts: jobs facilitated via increased trade and foreign direct investment that is supported by the international connectivity provided by Toronto Pearson.

The key findings are that, since 2011, Toronto Pearson’s economic impact at the national and local level has grown substantially:

• The on-going operations of Toronto Pearson generate 49,000 jobs, up from 40,000 in 2011. These include jobs such as taxi-drivers, baggage handlers, flight crew and security staff.
• Toronto Pearson’s labour force grew more than twice as fast as the Province of Ontario’s between May 2011 and May 2016.
• In total, Toronto Pearson generates or facilitates 332,000 jobs, which accounts for 6% of Ontario’s labour force and $42 billion (or 6.3%) of Ontario’s GDP.

This report serves as an update to Frontier’s 2011 Global Hub Study for the GTAA which focused on Toronto Pearson’s catalytic impact. The latest report also provides, for the first time, data on how the jobs facilitated by the airport are distributed across Ontario and the Greater Toronto Area by region.

Frontier (Europe) regularly advises airports, airlines and aviation regulators in the EU and beyond.

For more information, please contact Saskia Nett on s.nett@frontier-economics.com or call +44 (0)20 7031 7000.

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