Toronto Pearson Airport

Of all the large airports I have visited in the US Europe and Asia this must be the worst. Granted it is usually not overcrowded but the personnel are very cold and fussy including the security person who when asked if TSA pre check might be useful for US people leaving Canada said in a huff that he had never heard of it and that "This is Canada not the US" The facilities are abysmal - those so-called shops near Terminal 1 are awful for a larger airport. Also I can only imagine how that passport machine stop with about 10 machines gets crowded at peak times. Why not handle that manually like everyone else especially since you have to atop 10 seconds later to hand in the form anyway? Honestly after years of visiting Toronto I won't ever fly into Pearson again.

Great airport easy to find your way around lots of choice of food and beverage!

Arrival and departure through Terminal 1. This airport has come a long way in terms of the variety of airside restaurants and shops - it is much better now. Signage has improved as well. I read lots of comments about people complaining about the signage and directions in this airport but the signage could not be clearer (large bold and colour-coded). The customs clearance section is still a bit of an adventure with a mix of meandering queues for automated passport readers Nexus terminals and queues for customs officers. This could be improved. The moving sidewalks (express and local) are very good. The only major weakness at Pearson is baggage delivery (which is extremely slow no matter what airline you are flying). Airport management needs to address this.

My husband and I arrived at Terminal 1 Wednesday January 22 2014 heading for our usual destination in Cuba. I am generally satisfied by this great airport. On this day at approx 0400 when we approached the security area I was stunned as the female security worker told me "lady pay attention" I was in the process of removing my jacket and placing it along with my handbag in the grey bin. I had not spoken a word to this women and was very surprised by her tone and attitude. I bit my tongue and did what I was told. I work with the public everyday and if I would dare speak to my patients like that I would not have a job.

I'm a Canadian resident and flew in from Europe. The new kiosk based system was in use but it needed 6 or 8 people showing passengers what they were expected to do This suggests that the equipment interface is so bad that it borders on unintelligible. After passing through the customs I arrived at the baggage carousel where - in spite of my bags being flagged as priority from a biz-class ticket - I waited for 75 minutes before they emerged. The time for a/c landing to actual exit of the airport was 5 minutes shy of 2 hours. For comparison - landing to front door in Johannesburg takes 20 minutes (even when traveling in economy) and its similar at Heathrow.

Advised in Copenhagen by SAS check in agent Pearson has a new process to speed transit passengers from Europe to Toronto to USA destinations. So Pearson/GTAA personnel at entrance to USA Immigration had me scan boarding pass watch a screen for 40 minutes for my name to appear that my baggage had passed through wait then another 40 minutes for 100 people ahead of me to see the USA immigration officers a total of 80 minutes standing in line. I counted the pass through in that 80 minutes about 100 people ahead of me (as they shifted some to express line to clear backup). Came around a partition and saw many USA Immigration booths manned but no one queued by Pearson/GTAA supervisors. Then the USA Officer told me it was my fault for not having a Nexus card. Sloppy and inefficient. Wifi would not connect (same experience on earlier leg to Europe) and cell phone would not connect to a Canadian carrier. This airport is antiquated.

I travel extensively (I'm a Super Elite member of Air Canada). In the last month I've flown through Pearson from LHR MUC and IST and without fail I'm amazed at our archaic customs process and the ridiculously long wait for baggage. I'm a Canadian citizen. I'm pleased they have a separate queue for Canadian Residents now however Canada is the only country I've been to (out of 47) that is the most onerous and frustrating to enter. The Canadian Residents line is always the longest the three flights I took also required us to use the automated machines that promote "faster entry home" - the kiosks were slow couldn't read my passport and the organisation was a mess. You then still have to join another queue and give your printout (a waste of more paper and tax dollars as it's a scanned copy of the form you just filled out) to an officer who may or may not ask you questions. You then join another queue to show more officers your printout - and then once you get your luggage (which even for Priority can take ages - I waited 50 minutes for my bag from IST - easily wait an average of 40 minutes) you have to queue yet again to give your printed form to another customs agent. If the airport isn't busy it's not so much of an issue but these times are rare particularly when you arrive from European flight - most arrive in the early evening and you then have thousands of people trying to get through. It's terrible and makes no sense - can't we at least get rid of one of those checkpoints? And Pearson/GTAA whomever please fix the ridiculously long wait times for luggage. Airlines blame the airports and airports blame the airlines. We don't care - work together and sort it out. Airports that are 3 times the size of Pearson with 5 times the flights don't take as long.

I had two hours to make a flight arriving from the US to my connecting flight to Ottawa. One would think that it would be enough especially on a Tuesday afternoon. Not so. Canadian Customs clearance was relatively quick but upon arriving in the baggage pick up area and once finding the carousel for my flight as passengers congregated around it and waited and waited and waited. On board the West Jet flight it was announced bags should begin to arrive 20 mins after arrival. In fact it was about 45 mins before the bags started to trickle down and an hour before most bags seemed to arrive. Now depart this baggage area and looking for place to drop connecting bags off and again an area of mass confession. People everywhere one huge lineup that everyone got into then 10 mins later a worker said if only need to drop bags go around this corner. Fine 100 plus folks do this only to find another lineup waiting to drop bags on a belt that seemingly did not work. Slow slow slow! With 45 mins to spare I go out of this area to find that I must go upstairs and clear security again. Next big lineup about 300 people lined up to clear security in a queue that did not move. When I queried a worker about my flight leaving soon was put in a shorter line but this queue did not move either. Long and short of it made it to my flight literally as the door shut behind me. 2 hours of stress! I will from now on choose my transborder flights with flights directly into the US.

On 23th November I arrived from Turkey on an Air Canada flight with 2 bottles of duty free premium whiskey I cleared customs and proceeded to re-check my baggage to Ottawa I then walked miles to the domestic and through security my bag was opened and the two bottles confiscated. Normally I go straight to Ottawa then there would not be a problem. Why do Airlines and Duty Free stores not warn of the stupid rules my duty free was still sealed in the bag why can we not have a modicum of common sense the so called security staff actually took joy in confiscating my 90 Euro investment as a senior and veteran I shall attempt to avoid like the plague Toronto Int'l Airport which seems so badly managed they nickle and dime us on trolleys but still have extortionate surcharges.

I fly through this airport every month coming from VIE or FRA The baggage service is poor priority baggage doesn't come out first. Its a long walk from the plane to customs.