Toronto Pearson International Airport

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Toronto/Lester B. Pearson International Airport
IATA: YYZ - ICAO: CYYZ
Summary
Airport type Public
Operator Greater Toronto Airports Authority (GTAA)
Serves Toronto, Ontario
Elevation AMSL 569 ft (173 m)
Coordinates 43° 40' 38" N

79° 37' 50" W
Runways
Direction Length Surface
ft m
05/23 11,120 3,389 Asphalt/Concrete
15L/33R 11,050 3,368 Asphalt
06L/24R 9,697 2,956 Asphalt
15R/33L 9,088 2,770 Asphalt
06R/24L 9,000 2,743 Asphalt

Toronto Pearson International Airport or Toronto/Lester B. Pearson International Airport, (ICAO CYYZ, IATA YYZ), located in Mississauga, Ontario, immediately west of Toronto, is Canada's busiest airport and part of the National Airports System. It is ranked 29th among the world's busiest airports, handling more than 28 million passengers in 2004 (preliminary). The airport serves the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) and is the primary hub for Air Canada. Formerly run by Transport Canada, Toronto Pearson Airport is now run by a non-profit agency called the Greater Toronto Airports Authority.

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History

The airport first opened in 1939 as Malton Airport. It was renamed Toronto International Airport in 1960, and then to Lester B. Pearson International Airport (LBPIA) in 1984 in honour of Lester B. Pearson, Canada's 14th Prime Minister. On December 2, 1996, operational control of the airport passed from the Government of Canada to the Greater Toronto Airports Authority (GTAA) as part of the National Airports Policy. The full name of the airport, according to the GTAA, is now "Toronto Pearson International Airport", but it is also sometimes simply called "Pearson." News media and travel agents go by "Lester B. Pearson International Airport."

In 1972, the Canadian government expropriated land east of Toronto for a second major airport, Pickering Airport, to relieve congestion at (then) Toronto International. The project was postponed in 1975 due partly to community opposition, but GTAA revived the plans in 2004.

After the September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attacks, Toronto Pearson was part of Operation Yellow Ribbon, as it received 19 of the diverted flights that were coming into the United States, even though Transport Canada and NAV CANADA instructed pilots to avoid the airport as a security measure. When 9/11 happened, the airport was "Lester B. Pearson International Airport."

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Access

The airport is located about 32 km (20 miles) west of downtown Toronto. It is accessible from Highway 427 (just north of the Highway 401 interchange) or from Highway 409, a spur off Highway 401 leading directly into the airport.

Bus services connecting Toronto to Pearson Airport include two TTC routes, an express running from Kipling subway station and a local route from Lawrence West station, the latter also continuing beyond the airport to Malton. GO Transit operates a semi-express bus from York Mills and Yorkdale stations, and there is a privately operated Airport Express bus serving various major downtown hotels. Mississauga Transit operates a city bus from the Square One Shopping Centre in Mississauga's city centre, likewise continuing on to Malton.

Although the airport is near an existing railway line, it is not currently served by trains. On November 13, 2003, Union Pearson AirLink Group, a subsidiary of SNC-Lavalin, was selected to finance, design, construct, operate, and maintain a rail link connecting Pearson with Toronto's Union Station, with a planned travel time of about twenty minutes. The service, to be called Blue22, is expected to eliminate 1.5 million car trips annually. The project, whose cost is estimated at $300 to $500 million, remains controversial, as only 17% of people using Pearson now travel to downtown Toronto.

Travellers headed to suburban destinations will be able to use the service to connect to GO Transit commuter trains at Union Station, but early analyses predict that this will be considered unattractive to most, since people will need to take a train from the airport's suburban location to downtown, only to have to transfer to another train to go back to the suburbs. Its usefulness to travellers not headed downtown may increase, however, if a stop is created at the existing Bloor GO Train station, allowing people to transfer to the TTC subway at its nearby Dundas West station. Residents along the proposed route have also complained about planned alterations to accommodate the trains, which they say will make access to Weston Road from the surrounding neighbourhoods more difficult.

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Accidents

Air France Flight 358 ablaze after overshooting runway 24L on August 2, 2005.
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Air France Flight 358 ablaze after overshooting runway 24L on August 2, 2005.

The airport's worst accident took place on July 5, 1970, when Air Canada Flight 621, a DC-8 jet, was flying on a Montreal-Toronto-Los Angeles route. The spoilers were inadvertently deployed before the plane landed, and the resulting disaster killed all 100 passengers and nine crew on board.

On June 26, 1978, Air Canada Flight 189 to Winnipeg overran the runway during an aborted takeoff, and crashed into the Etobicoke Creek ravine. Two of 107 passengers were killed.

On August 2, 2005, Air France Flight 358, an Airbus A340-300 inbound from Paris, appeared to successfully land on runway 24L in a severe thunderstorm, but then failed to stop and partially disintegrated in the Etobicoke Creek ravine. The rear third of the plane burst into flames. The flames had engulfed the whole plane by 18:00 except the cockpit and the wings. There were 43 injuries, none serious, and no fatalities. Some flights were redirected to other cities, including 12 flights at Ottawa Macdonald-Cartier International Airport and Hamilton/John C. Munro International Airport. This incident is currently under investigation by the Transportation Safety Board of Canada. The crash of Air France Flight 358 was the biggest crisis to hit Toronto Pearson since the airport's involvement in Operation Yellow Ribbon. Many considered this a miracle.

The Etobicoke Creek ravine is very close to the west end of the airport. As it is in the runway overshoot zone and has been involved in two major accidents, there have been calls for the ravine to be improved for safety, perhaps by replacing it with a culvert and levelling the terrain. No doubt this would be an extremely expensive undertaking and it remains to be seen what (if anything) will be done. Opponents of the plan point out that if the ravine was replaced by a culvert, an aircraft that overshoots the end of the culvert may end up in Highway 401, Canada's busiest highway, on the southern border of the airport. This adds a complexity to the design of any culvert, particularly one for Runway 24L.

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Terminals and Airlines

Diagram of Toronto Pearson airport
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Diagram of Toronto Pearson airport

Toronto Pearson International Airport currently has three operating terminals: (New) Terminal 1 (or T-New), Terminal 2, and Terminal 3. T-New opened on April 6, 2004, with Air Canada being its major tenant. The old Terminal 1, which closed simultaneously, is being demolished to make room for additional gates at T-New. In 2005 after the old Terminal 1 was demolished, the western portion of Terminal 2 will be torn down, to be replaced with a new pier extending from T-New. By 2008, Terminal 2 will be completely torn down and by 2015, Pearson will then consist of T-New and Terminal 3, capable of handling up to 50 million passengers annually. Ultimately, T-New and Terminal 3 will be connected to form a 'super-terminal,' but a precise schedule for this project is undetermined.

As with many other major Canadian airports, transborder travellers pass through United States customs and immigration at Pearson before continuing onto their flights.

The LINK Interterminal Shuttle bus service connects the three terminals.

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New Terminal 1 (T-New)

  • Air Canada (Domestic and International) (Abbotsford (starts Dec. 17), Amsterdam, Antigua and Barbuda, Aruba, Barbados, Beijing, Belfast, Bermuda, Bogota, Buenos Aires, Calgary, Cancun, Cayo Coco, Cayo Largo del Sur, Charlottetown, Copenhagen(seasonal), Cozumel, Delhi, Dublin, Edmonton, Frankfurt, Fredericton, Glasgow, Grand Cayman, Halifax, Havana, Holguin, Hong Kong, Kelowna, Kingston(Jamaica), La Romana, Lima, London/Heathrow, Madrid(seasonal), Manchester(UK), Mexico City, Moncton, Montego Bay, Montreal, Munich, Nassau, Ottawa, Paris/CDG, Port of Spain, Providenciales, Puerto Plata, Puerto Vallarta, Punta Cana, Quebec City, Regina, Rome/Fiumicino, Saint John, San José (CR), San Juan, Santiago(Chile), Santo Domingo, Sao Paulo, Saskatoon, St. John's, St. Lucia, St. Maarten, Seoul/Incheon, Sydney, Tel Aviv, Thunder Bay, Tokyo/Narita, Vancouver, Varadero, Victoria (BC), Winnipeg, Zurich)
  • Air Canada Jazz (Domestic Only) (Charlottetown, Fredericton, Halifax, Kingston (ON), London (ON), Moncton, Montréal, North Bay (ON), Ottawa, Quebec, Regina, Saskatoon, Sault Ste. Marie (ON), St. John, Sudbury (ON), Thunder Bay, Timmins, Windsor (ON), Winnipeg)
  • Air Georgian (Domestic Only) (Kingston (ON), London (ON), North Bay, Sarnia)
  • Air Jamaica (Kingston)
  • Alitalia (Milan/Malpensa, Rome/Fiumicino)
  • Austrian Airlines (Vienna)
  • bmi (Manchester (UK))
  • Lufthansa (Frankfurt)
  • Etihad Airways (Abu Dhabi via Brussels)
  • Mexicana (Mexico City)
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Terminal 2

  • Air Canada (Transborder Only) (Atlanta, Boston, Charlotte, Chicago/O'Hare, Dallas/Fort Worth, Denver, Detroit, Fort Lauderdale, Fort Myers, Kansas City, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Miami, Milwaukee, Minneapolis/St. Paul, New Orleans, New York/LaGuardia, Newark, Orlando, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Raleigh/Durham, San Francisco, Seattle/Tacoma, St. Louis, Tampa, Washington/Reagan, West Palm Beach)
  • Air Canada Jazz (Transborder Only) (Atlanta, Baltimore/Washington, Boston, Charlotte, Cleveland, Columbus, Dallas/Ft. Worth, Detroit, Harrisburg, Hartford, Houston/Intercontinental, Indianapolis, Manchester(NH), Milwaukee, Nashville, New Orleans, Pittsburgh, Raleigh/Durham, White Plains)
  • Air Georgian (Transborder Only) (Albany, Allentown, Harrisburg, Hartford, Manchester (NH), Providence, Rochester (NY), White Plains)
  • United Airlines (Chicago/O'Hare)
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Terminal 3

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Charters

  • Conquest Vacations (St. Petersberg (FL))
  • Sunwing.ca Vacations (St. Petersberg (FL))
  • Kelowna Flightcraft (Kelowna)
  • Skyservice (Acapulco, Agadir, Bahias de Huatulco, Belfast, Belgrade, Calgary, Camaguey, Cartagena, Cancun, Cayo Coco, Cayo Largo, Cienfuegos, Cozumel, Dublin, Edmonton, Faro, Fort Lauderdale, Fort Myers, Halifax, Holguin, La Cieba, La Romana, Lamezia, Las Vegas, Liberia, Lisbon, London/Gatwick, Manchester(UK), Mazanillo, Margarita, Mazatlan, Merida, Montego Bay, Nassau, Ohrid, Orangested, Orlando, Pescara, Philipsburg, Portland, Puerto Plata, Puerto Vallarta, Punta Cana, Rome Fiumicino, San Jose del Cabo, Santa Maria, Santiago, Sarasota, St. John's, St. Kitts, St. Lucia, St. Petersburg, Shannon, Split, Timisoara, Trieste, Vancouver, Varadero, Venice, West Palm Beach, Willemsted, Zagreb)(all seasonal)

In addition, many cargo airlines serve the airport.

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Trivia

The Canadian progressive rock band Rush has a song named "YYZ" on their album Moving Pictures, where the opening tempo is based on the Morse code signal for the acronym "YYZ" (-.-- -.-- --..).

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See also

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External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toronto_Pearson_International_Airport"
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