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Client: Greater Toronto Airports Authority
Sector: Government and public affairs |
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| Challenge |
| As part of the commercialization of Canada’s system
of federally operated airports, the Greater Toronto Airports Authority
was established to acquire and operate L.B. Pearson International Airport,
the nation’s largest and busiest. The GTAA needed to establish its
qualifications to take on operation of the airport, while communicating
effectively with its various community-based municipal, business and trade
union components. |
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| Strategy |
| Argyle was engaged to assist the Board of GTAA communicate
its plans and intentions during the Authority’s extended negotiations
with Transport Canada for the leasing of Pearson Airport. The communications
strategy executed by Argyle was designed to present the GTAA as the logical
operational entity for Canada’s largest airport, handling thirty
million passengers a year and more than 1,200 daily take-offs and landings. |
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| Tactics |
GTAA activity was communicated to key publics and the
news media through a variety of initiatives during the three-year period
in which the Authority was in negotiation with Transport Canada. These
included:
- Significant enhancements to the GTAA team, including the appointment of
a leading international airport executive as President
- Designation of Pearson Airport as the “Gateway to North America” in
news media coverage of GTAA planning
- Communication of financial accomplishments by GTAA in securing debt
and other funding for operation and improvement of the airport
- Staging of an elaborate “hand-over” celebration when
GTAA assumed operation of the airport.
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| Results |
| Argyle’s engagement concluded with the successful
transfer of Pearson to GTAA on December 2, 1996, when existing management
and operational personnel were transferred from Transport Canada to the
Authority. With a mandate to operate Pearson Airport within a regional
system of airports to enhance the economic growth and development of the
Greater Toronto Area, GTAA is well on its way to completion of a $4.4 billion,
10-year redevelopment program at Pearson, including the construction of
a new terminal to replace the existing Terminals 1 and 2. |
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