1. University of Toronto XSeed Interdisciplinary Research Initiative
Impact of Air Service Reliability on Community Resilience and Wellbeing
University of Toronto XSeed Interdisciplinary Research Initiative

2. Supervising Professors:
Boozhoo
Pia Dimayuga
Master’s student in Civil and Mineral engineering at U of T
From Deep River, ON
Erik Ohlrogge
Master’s student in Global Health at Vrije University, Netherlands
From Wisconsin, USA
Supervising Professors:
Dr. Tracey Galloway
Dept. Anthropology
Dr. Shoshanna Saxe
Dept. Civil and Mineral Eng.
Dr. Michael Widener
Dept. Geography and
Planning

3. Research context In northern Ontario: 29 fly-in communities
Transportation plays a key role in access to many services (e.g. healthcare)
Climate change is affecting northern transportation
Air Service
Community Wellbeing
Reference: Northern Ontario Multimodal Transportation Strategy

4. Flight delays, diversions, and cancellations
Research context ?
Air Service
Community Wellbeing
Airport infrastructure
Fuel and maintenance services
Weather monitoring
Commercial, cargo, emergency flights
Market food, western medicine and health care, fuel, equipment, materials, etc.
Health outcomes
Health services
Food security
Housing conditions
Employment
Community connections
Flight delays, diversions, and cancellations
Weather
Climate change

5. Current research approach
Outstanding questions
Visit communities
Hear community members’ experiences
Hear airport and airline staff experiences
Data from airlines and MTO
Which communities?
How should we engage with community members and airport/airline staff in a respectful and open-minded way?
We’re looking for airport infrastructure conditions and flight data (e.g. delays, cancellations, cargo information).
What do you think? Your input and guidance would be greatly appreciated!

6. Research goals and community benefits
Make evidence-based connections between air service and community wellbeing
Gather evidence to support policy changes and future initiatives (e.g. reconciliation through engineering)
Share perspectives and stories of community members, airport staff and pilots

7. Meegwich!
We look forward to your questions, input, and future partnership
Pia Dimayuga Erik Ohlrogge