Citing high rent it must pay to the federal government, the Greater Toronto Airport Authority (GTAA) is again hiking the landing fees charged to airlines using Pearson International – a move that will make it the most expensive airport in the world.

The GTAA said landing fees are going up by 6.9 per cent in 2006, while general terminal charges will rise by 8.9 per cent.

"Almost 60 per cent of the anticipated increase in landing fees is directly attributable to the increase in rent payments to the federal government that the GTAA must pay in 2006 compared to the rent paid in 2005," the airport authority said in a release.

Pearson International Airport

After paying $133 million in rent to the government for 2005, the GTAA said it could wind up paying as much as $151.5 million for ground rent in 2006.

The Air Transport Association of Canada, which represents the country's commercial aviation industry, has pegged Pearson as the world's second most expensive place to land a big jet, after Tokyo's Narita airport.

Pearson would take over the top spot when the new landing fees take effect in a few weeks.

It will cost more than $13,000 to land a 747-400 at Pearson in 2006 and about $7,300 to land the same plane at Narita. Tokyo's big airport recently rolled back its landing fees.

Robert Milton, the head of Air Canada, which uses Pearson as its main hub, recently said his airline would schedule more flights in and out of the airport if the fees were lowered. The airline is scheduling new flights that avoid Pearson as a cost-saving measure.

In May, the federal government announced a new rent policy for the country's airports. But the GTAA complained that "there would be no significant relief" for Toronto's Pearson airport until 2012.