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, and the 49th-busiest airport in the world, handling 47.3 million passengers in 2025. It is named in honour of Lester B. Pearson (1897–1972), the 14th Prime Minister of Canada and 1957 Nobel Peace Prize laureate.
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 (GTAA) 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 2026, 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 at Elmbank, northwest of Toronto near the town of Malton in what was then Toronto Township (which would later become Mississauga to avoid confusion with the nearby city of Toronto), 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 (GTAA) 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 handle the three main sectors of air travel—domestic, transborder (to the United States), and international. As a result, terminal operations at Toronto Pearson are organized primarily by airline and airline alliance rather than by the type of route.
The former Terminal 2, which opened in 1972, was permanently closed and demolished in 2008 to allow 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, consisting of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, Adamson Associates Architects, and Moshe Safdie and Associates. The terminal opened in 2004, replacing the former Aeroquay One (also referred to as the original Terminal 1).
Terminal 1 is primarily used by Air Canada and its subsidiaries, all members of Star Alliance, Oneworld member Royal Air Maroc, and several non-alliance airlines including Air North, Emirates, and Etihad Airways.
The terminal contains three concourses: D, E, and F. Concourse D is used for domestic flights, Concourse E for international flights, and Concourse F for transborder flights to the United States. Concourse F functions as a United States border preclearance area.
Terminal 1 also includes multiple airline lounges and passenger facilities. Two gates (E73 and E75) are designed to accommodate the Airbus A380 aircraft, which has been used on flights to Toronto by airlines such as Emirates and Etihad Airways.
Terminal 3 Terminal 3 is a facility with 46 gates, designed by B+H Architects and Scott Associates Architects Inc. The terminal opened in 1991 and previously served as a major hub for the now-defunct airline Canadian Airlines.
Terminal 3 is used by most Oneworld airlines except Royal Air Maroc, as well as all SkyTeam airlines. Other airlines operating from the terminal include Air Transat, Flair Airlines, Porter Airlines, and WestJet.
The terminal contains three concourses—A, B, and C. Concourse A is used for transborder flights to the United States and includes a United States border preclearance facility. Concourses B and C handle domestic and international flights and are connected airside.
Infield Concourse The Infield Concourse (IFC) was originally built to handle passenger traffic during the construction of the current Terminal 1. Its 11 gates opened gradually between 2002 and 2003. In 2009, the facility was closed for regular operations after the completion of the new Terminal 1, although the Greater Toronto Airports Authority retained it for potential future use.
The terminal was renovated in 2015 to serve as a reception facility for government-sponsored refugees of the Syrian civil war. Additional renovations were completed in 2018, and the concourse was reactivated as an extension of Terminal 3 to accommodate seasonal demand. Passengers traveling through the IFC are transported by bus between Terminal 3 and the concourse.
VIP Terminal Skyservice operates a private FBO terminal at Toronto Pearson located on Midfield Road in the airport's infield area. The facility handles most private aircraft arriving and departing from the airport and provides services such as concierge assistance, private customs and immigration processing, catering, baggage handling, and ground transportation for passengers.
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. NumberLengthWidthILSAlignment05/23Cat. IIIa (05), Cat. I (23)East–west06L/24RCat. IIIa (6L), Cat. I (24R)East–west06R/24LCat. I (both directions)East–west15L/33RCat. I (both directions)North–south15R/33LCat. I (both directions)North–south
Airfield operations
Toronto Pearson is home to the Toronto Area Control Centre, one of seven area control centres in Canada operated by Nav Canada. The airport uses a Traffic Management Unit (TMU), located in the apron control tower at Terminal 1, to control the movement of aircraft and other airport traffic on the ground. The main air traffic control tower at Toronto Pearson is located within the infield operations area of the airport.
The airfield maintenance unit is responsible for general maintenance and repairs at Toronto Pearson. During the winter months, the unit expands into a dedicated 24-hour snow removal team of more than 200 workers tasked with ensuring normal operations at the airport, as Toronto Pearson regularly experiences of total snow accumulation in a typical winter season. The airport employs over 94 pieces of snow removal equipment, including 11 Vammas PSB series, four Oshkosh Corporation Snow Products HT-Series snowplow units, and 14 snowmelters.
Pearson Airport's Central De-icing Facility is the largest in the world, servicing over 10,500 aircraft each winter. The six de-icing bays, covering a total area of , can handle 12 aircraft simultaneously and take between 2 and 19 minutes to de-ice each aircraft depending on factors such as weather and aircraft specifications.
The Toronto Pearson Fire and Emergency Services, operated by the Greater Toronto Airports Authority (GTAA) maintains three stations at the airport; one to the north, one to the south, and one offsite to the east, with more than 80 firefighters providing fire and rescue operations at Toronto Pearson. They are equipped with six crash tenders as well as several pumpers, aerial ladders, and heavy rescue units. The Toronto Pearson Fire and Emergency Services operates in conjunction with the Fire and Emergency Services Training Institute (FESTI), located at the northwest end of the airport grounds.
Cargo facilities
Toronto Pearson handles approximately half of all the international air cargo in Canada. The airport has three main cargo facilities, known as Cargo West (Infield), Cargo East (VISTA), and Cargo North (FedEx).
The Cargo West facility (also known as the Infield Cargo Area) is located between runways 15L/33R and 15R/33L. It is a multi-tenant facility including three large buildings with of warehouse space, a common use cargo apron, vehicle parking, and a truck maneuvering area. A four-lane vehicle tunnel connects the Infield Cargo Area to the passenger terminal area of the airport.
The Cargo East facility (also known as the VISTA cargo area) is located north of Terminal 3. The VISTA cargo area is a multi-tenant facility of several buildings organized in a U-shape, with of warehouse space and an adjacent common-use cargo apron.
The Cargo North facility is the Canadian hub for FedEx Express. The site occupies an area on the north side of the airport near runway 05/23 and is home to two buildings operated exclusively by FedEx with of warehouse space and a dedicated cargo apron.
Security The Peel Regional Police is the primary law enforcement agency at Pearson Airport. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) also maintain a Toronto Airport Detachment at Pearson Airport, which provides federal law enforcement services.
The Canadian Air Transport Security Authority (CATSA) is responsible for security screening procedures at Pearson Airport. Other government agencies with security operations at Pearson include the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA), Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC), the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), and Transport Canada. In addition, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) from the United States also conduct operations at the airport to facilitate United States border preclearance.
Other facilities