Oct 4, 2026
If you fly out of Toronto’s Pearson Airport, you already pay a $40 airport improvement fee (AIF) every time you depart. Now Ottawa wants private investors to run Pearson and three other major airports, and many Canadians aren’t sold.
A new survey from Nanos Research, a Canadian public opinion and research firm, conducted for CTV News, found 47% of Canadians oppose or somewhat oppose letting private investors operate the country’s four largest airports. Just 38% support or somewhat support the idea, while 15% say they are unsure.
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“There’s going to need to be a lot of explaining from the government in terms of protecting the public good,” Nik Nanos, founder and chief data scientist at Nanos Research, told CTV News. “So this could be a very tricky political issue for the Carney government to navigate.”
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For travellers, the real question is simple: Will it cost more to fly? Here’s what’s actually on the table, what happened in other countries that privatized airports and what you can do now.
What is Ottawa actually proposing?
In September, Prime Minister Mark Carney announced the federal government will seek private investment to run Toronto Pearson, Montreal-Trudeau, Calgary and Vancouver international airports.
This isn’t an outright sale. Under the proposal, private operators would run the airports under long-term leases, while the federal government maintains ownership of the land and assets. Transport Canada, the federal department that oversees transportation, would continue to regulate all four airports.
The catch: The specific rules governing airport fees and charges haven’t been announced. That gap is a big part of why Canadians are cautious.
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Why are so many Canadians wary?
In a word, affordability.
“All Canadians are thinking about right now is the cost of living,” Nanos said. “And if there’s any initiative that is seen as increasing the cost of travel, this will make it even more difficult politically for the Carney government.”
Still, opposition to privatization appears to be softening. In a June survey Nanos conducted for Bloomberg, 53% of Canadians opposed or somewhat opposed the government’s airport privatization proposal, while 32% supported or somewhat supported it. The two polls asked slightly different questions, so the 6-percentage-point drop in opposition should be read with caution.
What happened when other countries privatized airports?
Australia is the example most often raised in the debate over privatizing airports. The country privatized several major airports throughout the country in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
Rod Sims, former chair of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), the country’s competition regulator, told CBC News that airport fees rose “massively” after privatization.
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“What happened in Australia is yes, the taxpayer wins because you get more money, but the travelling public loses big time, over time,” Sims said.
His reasoning is that, in large countries that rely on air travel, like Canada and Australia, major airports operate as near monopolies when there’s no reasonable alternative nearby. Sims suggested a price cap on airport fees, indexed to inflation, as one safeguard.
Critics point to other numbers, as well. A report from the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC), a national federation of labour unions, found the revenue Perth Airport collected from airlines per passenger rose more than 60% over 10 years. But supporters of privatization counter that private operators can bring fewer cancellations and more international routes.
How much are you paying in airport fees now?
At Pearson, the AIF is $40 per departing passenger, according to the Greater Toronto Airports Authority (GTAA), the non-profit that runs the airport. The GTAA says the fee has risen by an average of about $1 a year for two decades and is still below London Heathrow’s improvement fee of roughly $52.
For a family of four flying out of Pearson, that’s $160 in AIFs alone, before taxes and before the separate fees airlines pay airports, which are typically built into fares when you book your ticket.
The GTAA argues the better measure is total cost per enplaned passenger, which it says fell to $29.98 in 2025 from $32.16 in 2022.
What to do now
Nothing changes at the gate yet. But the next few months will shape what you pay for years into the future. Here’s how to get ahead of it.
Know your baseline
AIFs are collected when you buy your ticket and appear in the taxes, fees and charges section of your fare. Check that line on your next booking to keep on eye on changes.
Compare total fares across airports
If you live close to a smaller airport, compare the full price, not just the base fare. Air Canada publishes a list of AIFs by Canadian airport.
Budget fees as a separate line
For families and frequent flyers, mandatory fees add up fast. Treat them each as their own item in your travel budget.
Watch the fee rules
Whether the final framework includes enforceable caps on airport charges will matter more to your budget than who operates the terminal.
Make your view known
If you have an opinion, contact your Member of Parliament (MP) while the rules are still being drafted.
The bottom line
Privatization isn’t automatically good or bad for travellers. What matters most is the guardrails put in place and, until Ottawa spells those out, it pays to know exactly what you’re paying today.
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Leslie Kennedy served as an editor at Thomson Reuters and for Star Media Group, followed by a number of years as a writer and editor and content manager in marketing communications, before returning to her editorial roots. She is a graduate of Humber College’s post-graduate journalism program and has been a professional writer and editor ever since.
