What role do airports authorities play?
Operations
Airports handle infrastructure, operations, safety and commercial activity.
We do a lot, but we don’t do everything. A passenger’s journey through an airport is a team sport, and each player brings its own skills and ingenuity to the table:
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Airlines decide the routes, schedules, fares and aircraft, and own the planes you fly on.
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The Canadian Air Transport Security Authority, a federal Crown corporation, screens passengers and baggage before you board.
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The Canada Border Services Agency handles immigration and customs when you arrive from abroad.
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NAV CANADA manages the airspace around airports and across Canada, they provide air traffic control, safely moving aircraft from the runway through the skys across Canada.
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Ground services independent businesses offering fuelling, baggage handling, cleaning, catering and maintenance of the aircraft between flights, usually under contract with an airline.
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Transport Canada sets the safety and security rules everyone operates under as the regulator of air transportation.
The airport authority runs everything those partners depend on: the runways, the terminal, the baggage systems, the roads and the land. It also handles the business side — leasing space to hundreds of companies, partnering with private developers and investors on projects, and marketing the airport for new investment and new routes.
Last updated: 30 September 2026