Toronto Photo Gallery - Pearson Airport

Pearson is Canada's busiest airport, handling almost 45 million passengers in 2023. It has 2 terminals. Terminal 1 was redeveloped from 2 older terminals in the early 2000s while Terminal 3 opened in 1991, hence there is no longer a Terminal 2.

However, the facility hasn't ranked well internationally. The North American Airport Satisfaction survey released in 2024 by J.D. Power ranked it 20th out of 21 mega-sized airports on the continent that serve 33 million passengers or more annually.

I've moved the plane spotting photos into a separate page.

Terminal 1 is primarily used by Air Canada and its Star Alliance partners. Canadian airports separate departures into domestic, transborder (US), and international sections.

Land-side areas

Departure boards display 2 types of flight information. This one lays out flights in chronological order, while some screens list the destination cities in alphabetical order.

Air-side

Most large Canadian airports have US immigration pre-clearance on-site so the plane arrives in the US as a domestic flight.

For arriving passengers, luggage carts used to be paid. But the new management company has removed that awful first impression cash grab to align with international practice.

Terminal 3 has aged and become less user-friendly over the years. This terminal is used by non-Star Alliance and charter / low-cost airlines.

The new management has tried to improve the passenger experience with nicer gate lounges offering iPads at every working desk.

In recent years, there has been an increase in the number of Chinese airlines flying to Toronto.

Getting to the airport has gotten easier with the opening of the UPX, an express train into Union Station. For residents residing outside downtown, GO Transit runs buses to various points outside the core. However, these all stop at Terminal 1 so passengers need to haul their bags to a separate free people mover to get to Terminal 3. The train connection was built long after Terminal 3 opened so the designers seemingly forgot about the need to connect to it.

For a cheaper ride, TTC buses take passengers to Kipling subway station. This used to be the only way to reach downtown by public transit although there was a private coach company offering express bus rides.

This airport seems to get on the news for all the wrong reasons. In April 2023, an air cargo container with gold bars and currency was stolen from a secure storage facility here after arriving on an Air Canada flight from Switzerland. Police have described it as an "inside job" with airline staff involvement and believe organized crime melted the gold and used the proceeds to traffic firearms from the US into Canada.