Toronto Pearson International Airport , also known as Lester B. Pearson International Airport or simply Toronto Pearson (IATA: YYZ , ICAO: CYYZ ), is a major international airport serving Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is situated 27 km (17 mi) northwest of Downtown Toronto in the city of Mississauga, Ontario. It is the primary airport for a densely populated metropolitan region in southern Ontario including and surrounding the Greater Toronto Area known as the Golden Horseshoe.
Toronto Pearson is the largest and busiest airport in Canada. In 2008, it handled 32.3 million passengers, 429,262 aircraft movements and was the 22nd busiest airport by aircraft movements in the world. In 2006, the airport was selected as the best global airport by the UK-based Institute of Transport Management.
Lester B. Pearson International Airport is the largest of four hubs for flag carrier Air Canada, making it a major Star Alliance hub airport. It also serves as a hub for Air Canada Jazz, Air Georgian, Air Transat, Fedex Express, Skyservice, and Sunwing Airlines, and is a focus city for Westjet. The airport is operated by Greater Toronto Airports Authority as part of Transport Canada's National Airports System and is one of eight Canadian airports with facilities for United States border preclearance.
An extensive network of daily non-stop domestic flights is operated from Toronto Pearson by several airlines to all major and many secondary cities across all Provinces of Canada. Toronto Pearson also has a very strong international presence, with 74 airlines offering non-stop or direct service to over 100 international destinations throughout the United States, Mexico, Asia, Europe, South America, Central America, the Caribbean, the Middle East and Oceania.
History
Malton Airport (1937-1960)
The airport was created from nine farmland properties that were purchased by the Toronto Harbour Commission in 1937. It first opened in 1939 as Malton Airport , named for its location near Malton, bounded by Derry Road to the north, Airport Road (6th Line) to the east, Elmbank Side Road to the south and Torbram Road (5th Line) to the west.
The first terminal was built in 1938 and consisted of a standard frame terminal building from a converted farm house. The original airport covered 420 acres (1.7 km 2 ) with full lighting, radio, weather reporting equipment, two hard surface runways and one grass landing strip.
Malton Airport was sold to the City of Toronto in 1940 and was used as a military training airport. An air traffic control centre was added in 1942 and the airport served as a British Commonwealth Air Training Plan facility during World War II.
A second terminal, similar to the existing structure at the Toronto Island Airport, was built along Airport Road in 1949 to replace the first terminal (converted farm house). It was able to handle 400,000 passengers a year, and had an observation deck on the roof. Further expansion of the airport saw the expropriation of land to the south of Elmbank Side Road and westwards past Torbram to Dixie Road. The airport's growth eventually lead to the disappearance of much of the town, Elmbank. The runways for Malton consisted of 14/32, a 11,050 ft (3,368 m) runway used for test flights for the CF-105 Arrow (Avro Arrow) fighter from the Avro Canada plant and now exists only as a taxiway to 05/23; 14/32, a 11,475 ft (3,498 m) north-south runway (replaced by 15L/33R); and 10/28, a 7,425 ft (2,263 m) northwest-southeast runway which now exists only as a taxiway.
Transport Canada obtained control of Malton Airport in 1958, and the airport was renamed Toronto International Airport in 1960.
Toronto International Airport (1960-1984)
The second terminal was demolished in the late 1960s to make way for the Terminal 1 (T1) building. The original T1 (also called Aeroquay One) had a square central structure topped by a parking garage with about eight levels and ringed by a two-storey passenger concourse leading to the gates. It was designed by John B. Parkin and construction took place between 1957 and 1964.
In 1972, the Canadian government expropriated land east of Toronto for a second major airport, Pickering Airport, to relieve congestion at Toronto International. The project was postponed in 1975, partly due to opposition by community activists and environmentalists. However, the government retained ownership of the expropriated land.
Considered state-of-the-art in the 1960s, Terminal 1 became overloaded by the early 1970s, resulting in the building of another terminal. Terminal 2, originally intended as a freight terminal, opened on June 15, 1972. However, the failed development of the Pickering Airport forced the airport to modify Terminal 2's plan into a two floor, 26-gate passenger terminal. Initially, it was served only by charter airlines, but became the hub for all Air Canada passenger flights on April 29, 1973. A passenger tunnel with moving sidewalks at the northwest corner of Terminal 2 connected it with Terminal 1.
The site of Terminal 2 was to have been the location for the planned Aeroquays Two and Three, duplicates of the design of the original Terminal 1 (Aeroquay One), but their inefficiency in handling wide-body passenger aircraft by the late 1960s forced the airport to abandon the circular terminal concept.
Terminal 2 was designed for three airlines: American, British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC), and Canadian Pacific Airlines (CP Air). In the later development stages, it became apparent that it would not be viable in this form, the major complaint being the lack of indoor parking and the lack of windows. As AA, BA (formerly BOAC) and CP opted out of T2, Air Canada, as the government airline, was forced to move its operations there against its will. Initially, it was operated as three separate areas, befitting the three airlines for which it was designed: furthest west, (designed for CP) the Domestic zone; at the centre (designed for BA), International; furthest east, (for AA) Transborder. In the late 1970s, T2 was redesigned again; this iteration lasting until the acquisition of Canadian Airlines in 2000. The western zone remained Domestic, but was now colour coded red. In the middle, a separate Rapidair area was created for flights to Ottawa Macdonald-Cartier International Airport and Montreal-Dorval International Airport; it was red as well. East of that was the Transborder area, coloured white. A new section was added on the east end for International flights and was coded blue. An airside corridor along the southern edge of T2 was added, giving access to and from Canada Customs; this made it possible for aircraft arriving in one zone to depart with passengers from another zone without regating the aircraft.
Toronto Pearson International Airport (1984-present)
The airport was renamed to Toronto Pearson International Airport in 1984, in honour of Lester B. Pearson, the 14th Prime Minister of Canada and recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. Operationally, the airport is often referred to as Toronto Pearson. Terminal 3 opened in 1991, to offset traffic from Terminal 1 and Terminal 2. Before its opening, Terminal 3 was the designation for the CP Air hangar at the airport during 1971 to handle the increased volume at Terminal 1.
There is one infield terminal located near the cargo tentants, however, it is not used for by any airline or cargo airline.
As part of the National Airports Policy, management responsibilities of the Toronto Pearson were transferred from Transport Canada to the Greater Toronto Airports Authority in 1996. The C$4.4 billion Airport Development Program commenced with focus on terminal development, airside development, infield development, utilities and airport support facilities over a 10-year period. Work began to replace Terminal 1 and Terminal 2 with a new Terminal 1, which along with a Terminal 3 would become the two passenger terminal facilities at Toronto Pearson.
To ensure the ability of Toronto Pearson to accommodate its growing aircraft volume, substantial redevelopment of the airside and infield systems took place. Cargo facilities were added in the centre of the airport between the parallel north-south runways, to increase capabilities and to offset the loss of the cargo facilities that were removed for the new terminal. Two new runways were built to increase the number of aircraft that Toronto Pearson can process. A north-south runway, 15R/33L, was added and completed in 1997. Another east-west runway, 06R/24L, was com
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