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.
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 Kiplingsubway 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 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)
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)
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))
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.