Toronto Pearson Airport Passenger Reviews and Toronto Airport Traveller Reports

We enjoyed an excellent vacation abroad, spent time in various airports. Unfortunately, we flew home via Air Canada and had a brief layover in Toronto. The signage was horrific! Even when we asked, we were greeted by discourteous staff who misinformed us on going through customs. We repeatedly stated that we were connecting to Pittsburgh and knew we needed to go through US customs; however, an airport employee rudely stated, "No, you must first go through Canadian Customs" needless to say, we missed our connections. An experience I'd rather forget. Hopefully we will arrive home sometime this evening. Have now been trying to get home for almost 48 hours! Pittsburgh never looked so good!

Arrived at Toronto (New) Terminal 1 from Sydney via Vancouver as a domestic passenger. Nice and airy terminal and quick and efficient luggage delivery. Departure 2 weeks later on the reverse route. Priority lane for Air Canada Elite and premium passengers was quite quick and friendly. Fantastic experience.

This airport is a mess. I flew through Toronto on my way to the US from Europe. No signs at all indicating US Customs, I repeatedly asked airport employees where to go and was repeatedly misinformed. This cost me time but I still ended up waiting for my bag. US Customs had no dedicated line for US citizens and although my connection was extremely tight, foreign nationals were repeatedly waved on ahead of the rest of us in line. There was an Air Canada rep lurking around the US Customs area to make sure that Air Canada pax were taken care of. Security was also slow, inefficient, and surly as others have commented. I made my flight literally by a minute, limping because of a back injury as I tried to run the last dismal corridor to gate 91, and was greeted by an employee yelling "come on, come on!" I have flown to and from Europe hundreds of times and never had an experience this bad. I had flown through Montreal previously and loved it - nice airport, no lines, customs was a snap. But Toronto was a truly awful experience.

Due to travel arrangements, I was landside at 03.15 for a 10.00 departure. No retail, no food or beverages available [not even a vending machine]. Signage poor and you'll need 20/20 vision to read the departures board. Seats seem designed to be uncomfortable. Check-in opens 4 hours before departure, however pax were confused about bag drop-off and assisted check-in. Immigration departure is quite a bit different now. A security officer scans the digital barcode on the boarding pass before entering security without even looking at the passport. YYZ charges $3 for the use of a luggage trolley. Retail and dining is dire. Food outlets are overpriced and so-called "duty free' is more expensive than the CBD in Toronto. All in all, I would say that YYZ is still doing its best to maintain a 3* rating.

Staff were very helpful and attentive. There was plenty of things to do and places to eat. Parking was easy and reasonable compared to other airports. I would recommend for anyone connecting or just terminating their flights.

Get ready to spend up to an hour or longer waiting for your bags or (even better) watch them dribble onto the carousel one by one with 5 minutes in between each. Totally incomprehensible. Other complaints: priority security lines are slower than the normal ones as security screeners seem to be extra thorough with business class passengers; no dedicated lines at Customs for Canadian citizens; and weak duty-free shopping relative to just about any international airport in the top 30.

Signage for NEXUS is almost non-existent. Once we found the NEXUS machines, we quickly cleared customs. Then, it was the wait for luggage. We were the only plane landing at 5.30 am and it took over an hour to get our luggage. We managed to get our luggage and found where we had to put it on a belt for our next flight onto YVR. Signage from immigration and customs to the domestic airport was not very good. Our flight to YVR was delayed and staff working at the departure counter were showing their frustration at passengers milling about. There was not enough seats.

I am familiar with this airport and so the poor signage on arrival is not a problem. Moving walkways have been installed alongside the regular ones. Immigration is fast, efficient and courteous. The big failing is baggage collection. Carousels are too small for high capacity pax aircraft. Waited 20 minutes for first bags to appear. The next bottleneck is the customs exit. There's only one. Pax all converge on this solitary point. Ground transportation is still meagre: a few out-of-town van hires, taxis or hotel shuttles.Time from stepping-off aircraft to being in the "greeters area" was 70 minutes.

Departed YYZ on Sunday March 17th, absolutely horrible experience. Queues everywhere and the entire process from arrival at the airport to finally clearing US customs and security took well in excess of two hours. Returning on Thursday March 22 saw the Canada Customs clearance process thankfully speedy, but the wait for one single bag was well in excess of an hour. Someone seriously needs to look at how this airport operates and fix it.

SEA-YYZ-FRA and back on Air Canada. What I don't understand is that flying to Europe requires going through Canadian Immigration through the shortcut (very efficient since it seemed like only I was transferring in Toronto arriving on my flight) just to get to International Departures. Flying back from Europe to US it is only US Immigration. Doesn't make sense, hurts AC business, since many people who get to US still need Canadian visa.

Arrived from Amsterdam and found Immigration and baggage reclaim to be pretty efficient with queuing time pretty short. Trying to find onward transfer to our city centre hotel was poorly sign posted. Luggage trolleys were not readily available. We also had a flight to JFK, the self service check-in was not working properly and check-in staff were rude and could not care less. The US immigration was quick and very efficient with friendly staff. Absolutely nothing to do once you clear security but a very light and airy terminal building.

Excellent departure experience on a flight to the US. Extremely quick processing by US CBT, efficient screening by CATSA staff and usual high level of cleanliness and efficiency within the terminal. The problem is in international arrivals. Immigration was efficient (through in 5 mins) but the major design flaw in the customs area has yet to be rectified. Waited 15 mins to hand my declaration form to the agent (polite but as frustrated as travelers). Why does Terminal 1 only have one Customs exit point, with all international arrivals funnelling into two lines? Unacceptable for an airport that aspires to be a major international destination.

Clean, and reasonably easy to find your way around. Staff helpful and polite. Parking is ok depending on when you travel (as they frequently cordon off areas in the garages). Shopping is mediocre with a ton of "Canadian souvenirs" (all made in China of course) being the main offerings. Restaurant choices are awful, and hardly anything to do landside for anyone waiting to see people off. The free WiFi is a joke, with connectivity being hit or miss, and Rogers support being (as usual) non existent. 90% of the surfing I tried to do failed with the network unable to connect to even the simplest of sites. Either charge for it, or don't bother supplying it. With only 2 terminals, it's hard to get lost, and given 30% of Canada's population live near there, it's one of the better airports I've used.

I have been travelling via Pearson a few times now, I have to say the waiting time has always been dreadful. Luggage check-in for international flights easily take over one hour, then there is the lineup for security. The walk towards boarding takes no less than 20 minutes. This sums up my way out for international flight. It only gets worse once I landed from overseas. It easily takes around an hour for customs and the wait for checked luggage is simply painful. Having recently taken a domestic flight to Calgary, I have to say everything becomes better if you do not have checked luggage. The security wait is much better this way but the walk to boarding is still way too long for my own taste. As much as I like the building, I find services have much to be desired.

Processing in T3 after arrival on AA flight from LAX at 17.45hrs on a Saturday was swift and painless and wait for luggage was acceptable (5 or 6 mins). No queues for taxis either. For return flight, check-in and immigration were swift but security was hopeless - we're expected to remove shoes and empty bags but there's no tables and seats for re-packing bags or replacing foot ware. For an "international" terminal the facilities in T3 are basic. AA's Admirals Lounge is small and dingy - needs a facelift.

Transit LHR-CLT (Air Canada), our four hour wait in the lounge seemed like 20 given the lack of anything to fill time. There was a small restaurant and loads of seats. Good news the USA customs was a pleasure to transit compared to the grizzly's at CLT. All flights on time.

Customer Rating :  3/5

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Customer Rating :  2/5

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Customer Rating :  3/5

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Customer Rating :  2/5

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Customer Rating :  3/5

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Customer Rating :  1/5

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Customer Rating :  4/5

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Customer Rating :  4/5

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Customer Rating :  1/5

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