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Toronto Pearson International Airport

Toronto Pearson International Airport
Quick Info
Type of Airport commercial
Run by Greater Toronto Airports Authority (GTAA)
Opened 1939
City Mississauga, Ontario, Canada
Coordinates
IATA YYZ ICAO CYYZ
Runways
Designation Dimensions Surface
Length Width
15L/33R 11,050 ft. 200 ft. Paved
15R/33L 9,088 ft. 200 ft. Paved
05/23 11,120 ft. 200 ft. Paved
06L/24R 9,697 ft. 200 ft. Paved
06R/24L 9,000 ft. 200 ft. Paved
Statistics
2001
Number of Passengers 26,982,342
Number of Takeoffs/Landings 406,360
Comments on this test infobox

Toronto Pearson International Airport, located in Mississauga, Ontario, immediately west of Toronto, is Canada's busiest and largest airport. It is ranked 29th in the top 30 of the world's busiest airports, handling more than 28 million passengers in 2004 (preliminary). It was renamed (in 1984) after Lester B. Pearson, Canada's 14th prime minister. Its IATA Airport Code is YYZ. The airport serves the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) and is the primary hub for Air Canada.

Contents
1 History
2 Access
3 Terminals

3.1 New Terminal 1 (T-New)
3.2 Terminal 2
3.3 Terminal 3

4 Accidents
5 Trivia
6 See Also
7 External Links

History

When first opened in 1939, the airport was known as Malton Airport (since 1939). It was renamed Toronto International Airport in 1960, and later Lester B. Pearson International Airport in 1984, before its present name was given.

After the September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attack, Pearson International was part of Operation Yellow Ribbon, as it received nineteen of the diverted flights that were coming into the United States. All civil aviation flights over North America were suspended for three days and ordered to land immediately.

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.


Terminals

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 is completely demolished, the southern 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.

New Terminal 1 (T-New)

  • Air Canada (domestic and international flights) (Antigua and Barbuda, Aruba, Beijing, Bermuda, Bogota, Boston, Bridgetown, Buenos Aires, Calgary, Cancun, Cayo Coco (Cuba), Cayo Largo del Sur (Cuba), Charlottetown, Cozumel, Delhi, Edmonton, Frankfurt, Fredericton (NB), Grand Cayman, Halifax, Havana, Holguin (Cuba), Hong Kong, Kelowna, Kingston (Jamaica), La Romana, Lima, London Heathrow, Mexico City, Moncton (NB), Montego Bay, Montreal, Munich, Nassau, Ottawa, Paris Charles de Gaulle, Providenciales, Puerto Plata, Puerto Vallarta, Punta Cana, Quebec, Regina (SK), Saint John (NB), San Jose (CR), San Juan, Santiago (Chile), Sao Paulo, Saskatoon (SK), St. John's (NL), St. Lucia, St. Maarten, Tel Aviv, Thunder Bay (ON), Tokyo Narita, Vancouver, Varadero, Victoria (BC), Winnipeg (MB))
  • Air Canada Jazz (domestic flights only) (Kingston (ON), London (ON), North Bay (ON), Quebec, Sault Ste Marie (ON), Sudbury (ON), Timmins (ON), Windsor (ON), Winnipeg (MB))
  • Air Jamaica (Kingston, Montego Bay)
  • Alitalia (Milan Malpensa)
  • Asiana Airlines (Seoul via Vancouver)
  • Austrian Airlines (Vienna)
  • BMI British Midland (London Heathrow)
  • Lufthansa (Frankfurt)
  • Mexicana (Mexico City)

Terminal 2

  • Air Canada (transborder flights only) (Boston, Chicago O'Hare, Denver, Ft. Lauderdale, Ft. Myers, Kansas City, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Miami, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Nashville, New Orleans, New York La Guardia, Newark, Orlando, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Raleigh-Durham, San Francisco, Seattle, St. Louis, Tampa, Washington National, West Palm Beach)
  • Air Canada Jazz (transborder flights only) (Albany, Atlanta, Boston, Charlotte, Cleveland, Columbus, Dallas Ft. Worth, Detroit, Harrisburg, Hartford, Houston Intercontinental, Indianapolis, Manchester (NH), Milwaukee, New Orleans, Pittsburgh, Providence, Raleigh-Durham)
  • Air Wisconsin dba United Express (Washington Dulles)
  • United Airlines (Chicago O'Hare)
  • WestJet (Abbotsford, Calgary, Charlottetown, Edmonton, Ft. Lauderdale, Halifax, Kelowna, Moncton, Montreal, New York La Guardia, Orlando, Ottawa, Saskatoon, St. John's, Tampa, Thunder Bay, Vancouver, Victoria, Winnipeg)

Terminal 3

In addition, many cargo airlines serve the airport.

Accidents

The airport's worst accident took place on July 5, 1970, when Air Canada Flight 621 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 a ravine. Only two of 107 passengers were killed.

On June 2, 1983, Air Canada Flight 797, which was flying on a Houston-Dallas-Toronto route, made an emergency landing at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport in Kentucky; about half of the passengers died of smoke and fire.

On June 23, 1985, Air India Flight 182, which was flying on a Montreal-London-Delhi-Bombay route, exploded in midair southwest of Ireland, killing all of the passengers aboard. Investigators determined that this was a terrorist bombing, leading to criminal cases.

Trivia

Rush, a popular rock trio based in Toronto, included an instrumental track on their 1981 album Moving Pictures entitled "YYZ" in honor of their city. The main theme of the tune contains a repeated rhythmic motif in 5/4 that is equivalent to the Morse code sequence for the letters Y-Y-Z (– • – –   – • – –   – – • •).

See Also

External Links

Last updated: 05-23-2005 05:49:19
 
 
     
 
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