The federal government will retain ownership while investors operate the airports for decades
Toronto Pearson, Montréal-Trudeau, Vancouver International and Calgary International will be run by private operators under long-term concessions, with the federal government retaining ownership of the land and underlying assets.
Prime Minister Mark Carney announced the policy on September 15, at the Canada Investment Summit in Toronto.
"I am announcing today that we will seek private investment through long-term concessions to operate Canada's four largest airports," he said in his keynote address, in remarks carried by Global News.
Morgan Stanley and Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce have been hired to advise on selling the operating rights, Bloomberg reported last Thursday, citing people with knowledge of the discussions who spoke on condition of anonymity because the matter remains private.
Representatives for both banks declined to comment, and federal officials did not immediately reply to requests.
Regulation and oversight stay with Transport Canada.
Carney told reporters, "We, as a government, will be able to get tens of billions of dollars of proceeds from this process," in comments reported by The Globe and Mail.
Those proceeds would be directed to regional airports, local transportation projects and potentially a sovereign broadband network linking Canada with Europe and Asia.
Carney said the government intends to keep an ownership position in the concessions through the new Canada Strong Fund.
Canadian airports served 158.9 million passengers last year, according to Statistics Canada, with Toronto Pearson accounting for about 30 percent of traffic and Vancouver 16 percent.
Airport authorities currently provide roughly half a billion dollars a year in revenue to Ottawa under long-term ground leases.
Transport Minister Steven MacKinnon declined to guarantee that the cost of flying will not rise.
Pressed repeatedly by host Vassy Kapelos on CTV's Question Period in an interview aired September 20, MacKinnon said the government believes it can put agreements in place so that "there will be no unjustified increases in those kinds of fees."
He said fees would be partially regulated, and that more detail on timing and on whether legislation is required will come in the weeks and months ahead.
"We anticipate a very, very strong Canadian presence in these concession agreements," MacKinnon told Reuters on last Tuesday, adding that foreign investment approvals and national security tests would form part of any deal.
John Graham, chief executive of the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, said his fund is interested and told the Financial Post, "The devil's in the details on how it all gets structured."
Jo Taylor, chief executive of the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan, said the fund is consistently open to discussing infrastructure opportunities including airports.
La Caisse chief executive Charles Emond said in June 2026 that Canadian pension funds were in active discussions with the government about investing in the airports.
The Public Sector Pension Investment Board owns and operates international airports through its wholly owned subsidiary AviAlliance.
A Nanos Research Group survey conducted for Bloomberg in June found 53 percent of respondents opposed or somewhat opposed to opening airports to private investors.
"In the middle of a trade war, handing profitable public infrastructure over to private investors is exactly the wrong move," Lily Chang, secretary-treasurer of the Canadian Labour Congress, wrote in a statement carried by CBC News.
The Unifor Aviation Council of Canada protested outside the summit on September 14.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre told a news conference in Vancouver he wants to see the details of the plan before passing judgment.
"Toronto Pearson recognizes the federal government's plan for future investment in airports," the Greater Toronto Airports Authority said in a statement on the afternoon of September 15, carried by CP24, adding it looks forward to working with the government on next steps.
Enabling legislation may be introduced before the end of 2026, law firm Gowling WLG wrote in an analysis of airport privatization models.
The Canada Transportation Act was amended in June 2026 to require certain individuals and entities to give the Minister of Transport information the minister considers necessary, including on the assessment of the value of an airport or of an entity that owns or operates one.
