• Canada-australia-style-quarantine-toronto-getty
    Toronto Pearson International Airport
    IATA/ICAO Code:
    YYZ/CYYZ
    Country:
    Canada
    CEO:
    Deborah Flint
    Passenger Count :
    13,300,000 (2020)
    Runways :
    05/23 - 3 ,389m (11,119ft) | 06L/24R - 2,956m (9,698ft) | 06R/24L - 2,743m (8,999ft) | 15L/33R - 3,368m (11,050ft) | 15R/33L - 2,770m (9,088ft)
    Terminals:
    Terminal 1 | Terminal 3

In March, Toronto Pearson International Airport shared the Airports Council International's Best Airport in North America award with Hartfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. On Sunday, the prestigious Wall Street Journal labeled it the "World's Worst For Delays," proving how quickly winners can fall from grace.

Is Toronto Pearson really the worst airport in the world?

Toronto Pearson Airport.
Toronto Pearson Airport has been labeled the world's worst airport for delays. Photo: Toronto Pearson Airport

The Wall Street Journal report said that "over 53% of flights departing Toronto Pearson (YYZ) between June 1 and July 18 arrived late at their destinations, according to flight-data specialist FlightAware. This was the highest rate among the world's top 100 airports by the number of flights." Toronto was in good company, with the next two worst big airports for delays for June and July being Canada's Montréal-Trudeau International Airport (YUL) on 48.2% and Frankfurt Airport (FRA) on 46.2%. The FlightAware data shows that delays at Toronto peaked on Saturday, June 30, when 66.6% or 347 of the airport's scheduled flights were delayed.

The Greater Toronto Airports Authority operates the airport, and CEO Deborah Flint said the airport was overwhelmed in the final weeks of June. On the weekend of Father's Day (June 19), the airport was so crowded with stranded passengers that it kept its departure gates open overnight to give them a place to sleep. Putting it succinctly, Flint said, "We have a long way to go to get the system and Pearson where we want it to be."

Toronto Pearson handles around half of the nation's international traffic and air cargo, with many different authorities performing vital tasks across the airport. Flint said the airport is working with airlines and border, security and air traffic control authorities to increase staff and streamline arrival and departure processes.

Air Canada is crucial to the airport's performance

Canada's biggest airline, Air Canada, operates more than 50% of all flights at Toronto Pearson, so any delays or cancellations from Air Canada will significantly impact the airport. Air Canada operates around 400 routes to more than 200 destinations, including 62 Canadian cities and 53 destinations in the US. According to ch-aviation.com, it has a fleet of 232 aircraft, with around 10% currently inactive. Narrowbodies comprise nearly 70% of Air Canada's fleet, including Airbus A220s and A320 family types and Boeing B737 MAX 8s. For long-haul routes, it mainly operates Boeing B777s and B787s, supported by Airbus A330s.

A321neo_ACA1-1
Air Canada has 30 Airbus A321XLRs on order, adding more range to its single-aisle operations. Photo: Airbus

In June, more than 33% of Air Canada's arriving flights were late disembarking passengers at Toronto Pearson. The airline attributed that to a cocktail of issues, including overstretched staff at border control and security operations, baggage-system breakdowns and air traffic control shortages. In a call to action, the airline said that these bodies must work well together for the entire system to function correctly. To add something to the effort, Air Canada voluntarily removed around 150 flights per day, or 15% of its capacity, to ease overcrowding in the airport.

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The Airports Council International (ACI) is the trade association of the world's airports, with its members operating 1,950 airports in 185 countries. Its annual Airport Service Quality (ASQ) awards recognize airport excellence in customer experience worldwide, based on survey data collected at close to 400 airports in 95 countries. In pre-COVID-19 times, there were 640,000 individual surveys delivered per year in 50 languages. In 2021 Toronto Pearson shared the award with Atlanta in the category of over 40 million passengers per year.

The way airports have been traveling this year it's hard to see any point in doing customer satisfaction surveys anywhere. Do you think airport awards should be suspended for 2022?

Simple Flying has reached out to Toronto Pearson Airport and we will update this article with any response.