A trip that would’ve normally taken Charles Climenhage an hour and a half — or two-plus hours, depending on traffic — took him 11 minutes last Wednesday.
The real estate broker was one of the first people to fly from Niagara District Airport to Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport with Aspen Air Charters, which is rolling out scheduled passenger flights this fall and winter that take travellers from Niagara to Toronto three times a week.
The Niagara-on-the-Lake airport’s CEO says if all goes well, the airport plans to add more scheduled flights this spring, with flights coming and going five times a week.
In September, Climenhage, who’s lived in NOTL the past two years, heard about these new flights the Niagara District Airport was launching soon — he continued to check in with the airport, awaiting the new service’s launch.
On Nov. 2, when Aspen Air launched booking for its scheduled flights, he reserved a seat on the Nov. 4 flight at 7:40 a.m. — he wanted to attend an annual charity event hosted by the Toronto Maple Leafs that evening.
Right now, a one-way ticket to Billy Bishop airport from the Niagara airport (and vice versa) is $126. He bought one ticket, with plans to take the GO Transit back home to Niagara.
The flying experience lasted 25 minutes, including 11 minutes up in the air in a Piper Navajo, a utility aircraft that seats eight people, piloted by Ethan Coates and co-piloted by Josh Hooper, co-founder of Aspen Air.
Everyone arrived early, so they were taking off by 7:38 a.m. and landing on Billy Bishop’s runway by 7:49 a.m., the sun rising on another day in the city.
Climenhage had nothing but positive words to describe the experience.
“It’s such a wonderful flight. They go straight out overland for a bit to get to a certain elevation, and then he turns the plane directly at the CN Tower,” he said. “And I’m going, ‘This is unbelievable.'”
The flight service will run three times a week, Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, leaving from the NOTL airport twice a day at 7:40 a.m. and 4:40 p.m. The plane will fly from Toronto to Niagara twice a day at 8:50 a.m. and 5:50 p.m.
The airport’s CEO, Dan Pilon, says people have been “clamoring for” the return of short-hop flights to and from Toronto since its partnership with FlyGTA, which flew people to and from Toronto starting in 2017, was grounded in 2022 due to rising fuel costs and a pilot shortage.
A year and a half ago, Pilon connected with Haskins and Hooper and floated the idea of a teamup. A year ago, the project began in earnest: they began organizing logistics, clearing the scheduled passenger service under regulatory and safety rules and making upgrades to airport infrastructure.
Pilon said the airport didn’t have to spend much making those upgrades, and with this service being small-scale scheduled passenger flights rather than larger commercial flights, it “folds nicely” into the airport’s current operations accommodating charter flights.
Both Pilon and Hooper said they’re excited about the partnership and what it means for their respective organizations.
“We’re really focused on trying to be significant to the members of our community,” Pilon said. “Aspen’s an integral part of that.”
“Being able to serve the communities and start this little airline service is fantastic for us,” said Hooper.
Climenhage said he hopes to fly with Aspen Air between Niagara and Toronto again, and could see himself flying with them once or twice a month within the next year, provided the ticket price remains in its current range.
“I really believe this is a major step forward for not just Niagara-on-the-Lake, but the Niagara region, and I’d go so far as to say southern Ontario,” he said.
To view available flights, visit aspenaircharters.com/scheduled-flights.
