Toronto Pearson International Airport


Toronto Pearson International Airport is an international airport primarily located in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada. It is the main airport serving Toronto, its metropolitan area, and the surrounding region known as the Golden Horseshoe. Pearson is the largest and busiest airport in Canada, handling 46.8 million passengers in 2024. It is named in honour of Lester B. Pearson, the 14th Prime Minister of Canada and 1957 Nobel Peace Prize laureate for his humanitarian work in peacekeeping.
Pearson International Airport is situated northwest of downtown Toronto in the adjacent city of Mississauga, with a small portion of the airfield extending into Toronto's western district of Etobicoke. It has five runways and two passenger terminals along with numerous cargo, maintenance, and aerospace production facilities on a site that covers.
Toronto Pearson is the primary global hub for Air Canada. It also serves as a hub for Porter Airlines and WestJet, as a focus city for Air Transat, and a base of operations for Flair Airlines. Pearson is operated by the Greater Toronto Airports Authority as part of Transport Canada's National Airports System and is supported by around 50,000 workers. The airport maintains facilities for United States border preclearance.
An extensive network of non-stop domestic flights is operated from Toronto Pearson by several airlines to all major and many secondary cities across all provinces and territories of Canada. As of 2025, more than 50 airlines operate non-stop or direct flights from Pearson to more than 180 destinations across all six inhabited continents.

History

In 1937, the Government of Canada agreed to support the building of two airports in the Toronto area. One site selected was on the Toronto Islands, which is the present-day Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport. The other site selected was an area northwest of Toronto near the town of Malton in what was then Toronto Township, which was originally intended to serve as an alternate to the downtown airport but instead would become its successor due to having a much larger space without being constrained by Lake Ontario and Toronto Inner Harbour. The first scheduled passenger flight at the Malton Airport was a Trans-Canada Air Lines DC-3 that landed on August 29, 1939.
During the Second World War, the Royal Canadian Air Force established a base at the airport as a component of the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan. RCAF Station Malton was home to several training schools and was in operation between 1940 and 1946.
In 1958, the municipal government of Toronto sold the Malton Airport to the Government of Canada, which subsequently renamed the facility to Toronto International Airport, under the management of Transport Canada. The airport was officially renamed Lester B. Pearson International Airport on January 2, 1984, in honour of Toronto-born Lester B. Pearson, the 14th prime minister of Canada and recipient of the 1957 Nobel Peace Prize. The Greater Toronto Airports Authority assumed management, operation, and control of the airport in 1996, and has used the name Toronto Pearson International Airport for the facility since the transition.
Since Toronto has more than one airport, YTO is used for the area designation. At the same time, Pearson is coded YYZ, Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport is YTZ, and Toronto/Buttonville Municipal Airport in Markham, until its closure on November 24, 2023, was YKZ. YZ was the code for the station in Malton, Ontario, where Pearson Airport is located, and hence the IATA code for Pearson Airport is YYZ. The telegraph station in Toronto itself was coded TZ, which is why Toronto's smaller Billy Bishop Airport is coded YTZ.

Terminals

Toronto Pearson International Airport has two active public terminals, Terminal 1 and Terminal 3. Both terminals are designed to handle all three sectors of travel, which results in terminal operations at Toronto Pearson being grouped for airlines and airline alliances, rather than for domestic and international routes.
The former Terminal 2, opened in 1972, was permanently closed and demolished in 2008 to make way for the expansion of the current Terminal 1.

Terminal 1

Terminal 1 is a facility with 58 gates. It was designed by a joint venture known as Airports Architects Canada made up of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP, Adamson Associates Architects, and Moshe Safdie and Associates. The terminal opened in 2004, replacing the former Aeroquay One.
Terminal 1 is used by Air Canada, its subsidiaries, all Star Alliance airlines, Oneworld member Royal Air Maroc, and non-alliance airlines Air North, Emirates and Etihad Airways. It features three concourses with Concourse D used for domestic flights, Concourse E used for international flights, and Concourse F used for transborder flights to the United States. Concourse F is a US border preclearance area and is separated airside from the other two Concourses. Two of the gates at Terminal 1 are designed to accommodate the Airbus A380, currently used by Etihad Airways and Emirates on their Toronto flights.
Along with the standard customs and immigration facilities, Terminal 1 contains special customs "B" checkpoints along the international arrivals walkway. Passengers connecting from an international or trans-border arrival to another international departure in Terminal 1 go to one of these checkpoints for passport control and immigration checks, then are immediately directed to Pier E for departure. This alleviates the need to recheck bags, pass through security screening, and relieves congestion in the primary customs hall. International-to-domestic passengers use the same corridor and a bus for one-stop security procedures, which avoids having to re-clear security if coming from another country with a mutual agreement.
The terminal has a total of eight lounges, with five of the lounges being Air Canada–operated lounges and three being Plaza Premium-operated. Both Air Canada and Plaza Premium have lounges in the Domestic, International and Transborder zones, with the Signature Suite being in the International Zone. Air Canada also operates the Air Canada Cafe in the Domestic departures zone.
An eight-level parking garage with 8,400 public parking spaces across from Terminal 1 is connected to the terminal by several elevated and enclosed pedestrian walkways.

Terminal 3

Terminal 3 is a facility with 46 gates, designed by B+H Architects and Scott Associates Architects Inc. It opened in 1991 and was a major hub for Canadian Airlines at that time.
Terminal 3 is used by most Oneworld airlines except Royal Air Maroc, which uses Terminal 1 and all SkyTeam airlines, along with Air Transat, Flair Airlines, Porter Airlines, WestJet, and all other non-alliance airlines at Pearson except for Air North, Emirates and Etihad Airways which use Terminal 1. Terminal 3 has three concourses. Concourse A is used for transborder flights to the United States and is a United States border preclearance zone and is separated from the other two concourses. Concourses B and C are connected airside, and gates within them may be used interchangeably for domestic and international flights.
The departure level has a Wendy's with some seating and the arrival level has a Subway restaurant.
The terminal has a total of five lounges. Three Plaza Premium lounges are located in each of the concourses, an Air France/KLM Lounge in the international departure area of Concourse C, and an American Airlines Admirals Club in Concourse A. A five-level parking garage with 3,800 public parking spaces is located directly across from the terminal, along with Sheraton Hotel, both of which are connected to Terminal 3 by an elevated pedestrian walkway.
A third public terminal, the Infield Concourse, currently acts as an extension of Terminal 3, providing additional bridged gates. Passengers on flights arriving or departing from gates at the Infield Terminal are transported by bus to/from Terminal 3.

Infield Concourse

The Infield Concourse was originally built to handle traffic displaced during the development and construction of the current Terminal 1. Its 11 gates were opened gradually throughout 2002 and 2003, and a business lounge was opened in 2005. In 2009, the Infield Concourse was closed for regular operations in conjunction with the official opening of the newly constructed Terminal 1. However, the GTAA retained plans to reactivate the IFC for regular operations whenever necessary to accommodate seasonal or overflow demand.
The terminal was substantially renovated in late 2015 to serve as a dedicated terminal for incoming government-sponsored refugees of the Syrian civil war. Further renovations were completed at the Infield Concourse in early 2018 and on June 5, 2018, the terminal was reactivated for summer operations by the GTAA to act as an extension of Terminal 3 to provide required additional bridged gates. Passengers are transported by bus between Terminal 3 and the IFC.
The Infield Concourse has been frequently used as a location to film major motion pictures and television productions.

VIP Terminal

Skyservice FBO operates an private VIP terminal at Toronto Pearson on Midfield Road in the infield area of the airport. The terminal handles most private aircraft arriving and departing at Toronto Pearson, providing passenger services that include a 24/7 concierge, private customs and immigration facilities, personalized catering, showers, direct handling of baggage, and VIP ground transportation services.

Infrastructure and operations

Runways

Toronto Pearson has five runways, three of which are aligned in the east–west direction, and two in the north–south direction. A large network of taxiways, collectively measuring over in length, provides access between the runways and the passenger terminals, air cargo areas, and airline hangar areas.
NumberLengthWidthILSAlignment
05/23Cat. IIIa, Cat. I East–west
06L/24RCat. IIIa, Cat. I East–west
06R/24LCat. I East–west
15L/33RCat. I North–south
15R/33LCat. I North–south