The chief executive of Porter Airlines said he is hopeful that the highly-politicized runway extension at the Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport will eventually happen.    

Robert Deluce told BNN Bloomberg that the expansion, a prerequisite for flying the CSeries jets it wants to add to its fleet, will happen “with or without jets.”

“My view on jets is that I don’t think it’s a question of if, I think it’s a question of when,” he said in an interview Thursday.

The regional carrier announced in early 2013 it had an agreement with Bombardier to buy as many as 30 of its new jets, but Porter was stymied in its bid to start flying the aircraft from its primary hub at Toronto’s downtown airport shortly after Justin Trudeau's Liberals took power.

In November 2015, Transport Minister Marc Garneau made it clear the runway extension was off the table. The declaration came amid environmental and noise concerns, as the airport is located near the city’s urban centre.  

But Deluce said advances in jet technology will make the prospect of extending Billy Bishop’s runways more attractive.

“The new technology today is wonderful,” he said. “The CSeries have demonstrated that they are comparably quiet to the existing Q400s. And in several modes of flight they’re actually quieter.”

“So eventually that technology will be proven. It’s already been flown nicely by [Swiss International Air Lines] and by [Air Baltic]. So other carriers, including a Canadian carrier and probably a U.S. carrier – at least one – will have the technology in place at some point and hopefully will not be too far behind.”  

The ultimate decision to add jets to its fleet, however, is out of Porter’s hands. A so-called tripartite agreement requires the federal government, Toronto Port Authority and the city to sign off expanding the airline’s fleet.