Airport
Toronto Pearson Airport (YYZ)
Pearson is the airport most of the country connects through, and it does not stand in Toronto proper — the terminals sit out in Mississauga where the highways cross, with a dedicated train from one of them into Union Station. Two terminals carry everything, a free people mover threads them together, and flights to the United States clear American immigration here, on the ground. Settle which terminal you need and how you are getting downtown, and the rest is easy.
Updated 2026-09-22
- CodesYYZ · CYYZ
- Passengers per year (2022)35,028,484
- Elevation173 m
- ServesToronto
- Official websitetorontopearson.com
Booking links go to our partner Trip.com — we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you.
Which terminal: your airline decides, not your destination
Pearson runs on two terminals split by airline rather than by where you are flying. Terminal 1 belongs to Air Canada and its Star Alliance partners; Terminal 3 takes WestJet, the American carriers, the remaining alliances and the charter fleets. Both handle domestic, transborder and overseas flights, so the destination on the ticket tells you nothing — the operating carrier does, and a codeshare can land you in the wrong one.
The numbering has a gap because the middle terminal came down years ago and was never replaced, which is why some older directions sound wrong. Between the survivors runs a free automated train on an elevated track, calling at both terminals and at the parking and hotel stop beyond them. A terminal change is a ride plus two walks, not a stroll across a hall.
Downtown by express train, by bus, or off the curb
The headline link is the express train from the Terminal 1 station to Union Station, near enough non-stop, with two intermediate stops connecting to the subway and the regional network. It is a separate product from city transit but takes the same tap-and-go card or a contactless bank card. Arriving into Terminal 3 you ride the people mover to Terminal 1 first: the airport has only the one railway platform.
The cheap route is the transit express bus from the curbs to the western end of the subway, where one fare carries on into town; regional coaches leave the same stands for the cities beyond. Taxis and limousines wait in licensed ranks; anyone who approaches you inside the building is not one of them. Ride-hailing has its own zone on another level. The train stops for the small hours; the buses do not.
Two borders under one roof
Arriving from abroad you clear Canadian customs at your first airport in the country, which across the east means here. The hall runs on kiosks that read the passport and take the declaration, and the border agency's app lets you file it before landing and use the quicker lane. Passengers carrying on domestically collect the checked bag, hand it back at the connections belt and clear security again — the step that ruins short connections.
Departures to the United States are the local peculiarity. Both terminals hold American preclearance halls, so you clear US immigration and customs in Toronto and step off in the States as a domestic arrival. It costs time at this end: a transborder departure is the earliest start of the trip. What your own passport needs to enter the country in the first place sits with the entry rules for Canada.
A bed by the runway, and the dawn flight after it
A hotel sits inside Terminal 3, walkable from the concourse with a bag, which is the answer to a flight that leaves before the trains start; another stands one stop along the people mover, and a wider strip of airport hotels lines the roads around the site, all running shuttles to the terminal doors. Lounges and paid day rooms exist in both terminals, but the free airside seating is not built for sleeping.
Whether a layover is worth leaving for depends on the border, not the clock. Having already cleared the kiosks, stepping outside costs you the return trip and the security queue, and the express train puts a half day downtown within reach. On a transborder connection, remember the American hall is still waiting at the far end of that wait.
Onward: the car, the country and the airport downtown
Car hire counters and their garages sit at both terminals, return lanes included, and the highways outside are the quick way into the rest of southern Ontario — Niagara, the lake country, the wine towns. Driving into central Toronto is the one journey the car loses: the roads in are congested at almost any hour and parking at the other end is punishing, which is the trip the train was built for.
This is also where the country connects to itself. The long domestic hops to the Prairies, the Rockies and the Maritimes leave from here on the two carriers that fly the transcontinental network — Canadian long-distance travel in miniature. Toronto's second airport, on the islands off the downtown waterfront, takes regional flights through a pedestrian tunnel; nothing links the two, so moving between them in one day is a journey of its own.
Practical: a signal, a card and the refund that is not there
Data is the first thing most arrivals want, and the cheapest place to sort it is at home: an eSIM bought before the trip is working by the time the wheels stop. At the cash machines, stick to the ones wearing a bank's name and refuse the screen offering to charge you in your own currency; the rate behind that button is never the good one. Tipping and payment habits sit with money in Canada.
Two last things at the departures end. Canada runs no general sales-tax refund on goods you carry home, so there is no refund desk to find before check-in; the narrow rebates left apply to conventions and packaged tours, not to shopping. Travellers who need help through the building arrange it with the airline rather than the airport and are met at the door, which is worth booking ahead when the route runs through preclearance.