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 table of the top 30 world's busiest airports, handling more than 25 million passengers in 2002. 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.

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 19 of the diverted flights that were coming into the United States. All civil aviation flights over North America were suspended for 3 days and ordered to land immediately.

Access

The airport is located about 32 km (20 miles) from 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, it is not served by rail. But 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 20 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 CDN, 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 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. However, its usefulness to travellers not headed downtown may increase 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.

Diagram of Toronto airport

Terminals

Toronto Pearson International Airport currently has 3 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, 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, 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) (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) (Atlanta, Boston, Charlotte, Cleveland, Columbus, Dallas Ft. Worth, Detroit, Hartford, Houston Intercontinental, Indianapolis, Milwaukee, New Orleans, Pittsburgh, Raleigh-Durham)
• Air Wisconsin dba United Express (Washington Dulles)
• United Airlines (Chicago O'Hare, New Orleans, Sacramento, St. Louis)
• WestJet (Calgary, Edmonton, Ft. Lauderdale, Gander, Halifax, Kelowna, Moncton, Montreal, New York La Guardia, Orlando, Ottawa, Saskatoon, St. John's, Tampa, Thunder Bay, Vancouver, Victoria, Winnipeg)

Terminal 3

• Aeroflot (Moscow)
• Aerosvit Airlines (Kiev)
• Air France (Paris Charles de Gaulle)
• Air Transat (Acapulco, Amsterdam, Athens, Belfast, Birmingham (UK), Cancun, Cayo Coco (Cuba), Dublin, Edinburgh, Exeter, Faro, Frankfurt, Ft. Lauderdale, Glasgow, Hamburg, Holguin (Cuba), Ixtapa/Zihuatanejo, La Romana, Las Vegas, Lisbon, London Gatwick, Lyons, Manchester (UK), Marseilles, Montreal, Munich, Newcastle, Orlando, Panama City, Paris Charles de Gaulle, Ponta Delgada, Porlamar (Venezuela) Porto, Puerto Plata, Puerto Vallarta, Punta Cana, St. Maarten, San Andres (Colombia), San Jose (CR), Shannon, Toulouse, Varadero (Cuba))
• America West Airlines (Las Vegas, Phoenix)
• American Airlines (Austin, Chicago O'Hare, Dallas Ft. Worth, Los Angeles, Miami, New York La Guardia, San Diego)
• American Eagle (Boston, New York La Guardia)
• Atlantic Southeast Airlines dba Delta Connection (Atlanta, Cincinnati)
• British Airways (London Heathrow)
• BWIA West Indies (Antigua, Port of Spain, Tobago)
• Canjet Airlines (Deer Lake, Halifax, Moncton, New York La Guardia, Sarasota, St. John's)
• Cathay Pacific (Hong Kong through Anchorage)
• Comair dba Delta Air Lines (Atlanta, Cincinnati, New York Kennedy, Oklahoma City)
• Continental Airlines (Newark)
• Continental Express (Cleveland, Houston Intercontinental, Newark)
• Cubana Airlines (Cienfuegos, Camaguey, Havana, Holguin, Varadero)
• Czech Airlines (Prague through Montreal)
• Delta Airlines (Atlanta, Greensboro/Winston Salem)
• El Al (Los Angeles, Tel Aviv)
• Finnair (Helsinki)
• Grupo TACA (San Salvador)
• HMY Airways (Vancouver)
• Jetsgo (Calgary, Charlottetown, Edmonton, Ft. Lauderdale, Fort McMurray, Ft. Myers, Halifax, Kelowna, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Moncton, Montreal, Newark, New York La Guardia, Orlando Sanford, Ottawa, Prince George, Quebec, Sarasota, Saskatoon, St. John's, St. Petersburg, Sydney, Vancouver, Victoria, West Palm Beach, Winnipeg)
• Kelowna Flightcraft (Charters)
• KLM (Amsterdam)
• Korean Air (Seoul Inchon)
• LOT Polish Airlines (Warsaw)
• LTU International (Dusseldorf)
• MALEV Hungarian (Budapest)
• Martinair (Amsterdam)
• Mesa Airlines dba USAirways Express (Charlotte, Philadelphia)
• Midwest Connection dba Midwest Express (Milwaukee)
• Northwest Airlines (Columbus, Denver, Detroit, Memphis, Minneapolis St. Paul)
• Olympic Airways (Athens through Montreal)
• Pakistan International Airlines (Islamad and Karachi through Manchester)
• Pinnacle Airlines dba Northwest Airlink (Memphis, Minneapolis St. Paul)
• PSA Airlines dba US Airways Express (Knoxville, Nashville, Pittsburgh, Washington Reagan)
• SATA International (Faro, Lisbon, Porto, Porto Delgada)
• Skyservice (Charters)
• Thomas Cook Airlines dba Condor (Frankfurt)
• US Airways (Charlotte, Philadelphia)
• Zoom Airlines (Cardiff, Glasgow, London Gatwick, Manchester, Montreal, Paris Charles de Gaulle)

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 9 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 2 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 (– • – –   – • – –   – – • •).

External Links

• Greater Toronto Airports Authority (http://www.gtaa.ca)