4

CHAPTER

A I R P O RT D EV E L O P M E N T
PROGRAM

Airport Development
Program

4.1

AIRPORT DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM

Chapter 4

4 . 1 O V E RV IE W
At the end of 1996, the Greater
Toronto Airports Authority
(GTAA) assumed responsibility
for Toronto Pearson International
Airport. At that time the Airport
had an estimated airside, terminal
and groundside capacity of
28 million passengers annually.
Passenger volumes at that point
had reached 24 million passengers
per year and were growing at
approximately one million passengers annually, making the need
for system expansion urgent, particularly given the long lead times
involved in planning, constructing,
and activating new facilities. At
the same time, much of the
existing terminal capacity was
obsolete and in need of replacement or refurbishment.
In 1995, the GTAA Board of
Directors was faced with two
distinct options to address the
Airports future facility needs
required to meet projected
demand. They could continue
with the incremental approach to
airport expansion by infilling
available real estate and maximizing the residual capacity of
existing facilities, or they could
undertake a total redevelopment of
the Airport, thereby optimizing
the facilitys full development

New Terminal 1 and Parking Garage

potential. The first option of

continuing the incremental
approach had a low initial cost
and allowed rapid delivery of
badly needed facilities. It limited
east side development to an ultimate capacity threshold of
approximately 35 million passengers per year. In order to
balance terminal capacity against
ultimate airside capacity, this
option would have necessitated the
development of additional
terminal facilities in the Infield
area allowing expanded capacity
for another 15 million passengers
per year.
The advantage of the latter
option was that undertaking
the complete redevelopment
of the Airport would yield a
more efficiently organized
facility along with a much
greater ultimate annual
capacity of over 50 million passengers, all

Chapter 4 > A I R P O RT D E V E L O P M E N T P R O G R A M

accommodated on the east side of

the Airport. This option also
reserved the Infield area for other
development.
It should be recognized that while
the cost of opting for the incremental approach was significantly
less in the short to medium run,
the result would have been an
inefficient split terminal and
ground access system that would
not have been balanced against the
full potential of the airside system.
This option would have also
necessitated construction of an

4.2

View of Redeveloped Airside Facilities

New Terminal 1

underground people mover

between the Infield and the east
side passenger terminal facilities
for connecting passengers. After
careful consideration of these two
options, supplemented by input
from the air carriers, the GTAAs
Board of Directors elected to
pursue the latter option: total
redevelopment.
In order to realize its goal of reinventing Toronto Pearson, the GTAA
embarked upon a comprehensive
Airport Development Program
(ADP). This program called for the
staged replacements of Terminals 1
and 2, the construction of two
additional runways, and the

development of greatly expanded

cargo and ancillary aviation
facilities. The phasing of each
component of the development
program has been demand-driven,
based on Transport Canada
forecasts of aviation activity, and
designed to optimally match the
timing of capital spending to the
satisfaction of demand at
reasonable levels of service.
The Airport Development Program
encompassed three major components, each with its own timetable
and priorities:
Airside Development Project
Terminal Development Project
Infield Development Project

Chapter 4 > A I R P O RT D E V E L O P M E N T P R O G R A M

4.2 AIRSIDE DEVELOPMEN T

PROJECT
The primary objectives of the Airside Development Project are to
increase airside capacity to meet
demand and to improve the
operational efficiency of the
Airport. The program included
completion of a dual taxiway
system around the existing
terminal apron area to increase
taxiway capacity, as well as the
planned construction of two new
east/west runways and their associated taxiway systems to boost
airside capacity in the primary
wind direction to approximately
140 operations per hour (or a

4.3
practical annual capacity of
approximately 50 million
passengers per year).
The first new east/west parallel
runway was located on the south
side of the airport lands. Construction began in 1998 and Runway 06R-24L was operational by
the fall of 2002.
The final phase of airside development includes the construction of
a closely-spaced east/west runway
on the north side of the airport
lands, which will be the sixth and
final runway in the ultimate airside system. The demand requirements for this final runway are
expected to occur within the
2013-2019 time period.

4 . 3 TE RMINAL
D EV E LOP ME NT P ROJE C T
At the time the GTAA assumed
responsibility for the Airport, a
number of concepts had been
proposed for expanding terminal
capacity. Careful review of these
plans by the GTAA revealed that
none could be relied upon to provide adequate capacity to match
the full potential of the airside
system. What is more, all of these
plans left in place certain serious
weaknesses of the then terminal
layout, namely a convoluted and
counterintuitive access roadway
system and one of the smallest
aircraft aprons for an airport of
comparable activity in North
America.
In order to ensure that the full
potential of Toronto Pearson

LINK Automated People Mover

could be realized, an entirely fresh

look was taken at the terminal
expansion issue. In particular,
previous constraints on available
real estate and the need to retain
Terminal 2 were relaxed. As a
result of this rethink, an entirely
new concept for terminal expansion emerged which promised to
realize not only the full potential
of the Airport to meet demand,
but to do so in a manner which
would solve the problems posed
by the apron and access roads.
The new terminal envisaged would
consist of a single horseshoeshaped central processor housing
the departure check-in area,
baggage claim halls and meeter/
greeter areas, which would be
connected to six radiating piers
offering 86 bridged gates. Such a
facility would have the potential of
accommodating 35 million
passengers per year. When
combined with Terminal 3 (the
two terminals being linked by a
convenient, Automated People
Mover system) the Airport could
deliver a combined annual
capacity of over 50 million passengers, thereby matching the

Chapter 4 > A I R P O RT D E V E L O P M E N T P R O G R A M

ultimate capacity of the airside

(runway and taxiway) system. The
concurrent total reconstruction
and expansion of the highway
access system was planned to
ensure that the groundside access
capacity would match this
terminal and airside expansion.
Since old Terminals 1 and 2 occupied much of the land needed for
the new terminal, and since the
capacity provided by these existing
terminals was needed to accommodate traffic during construction, the new terminal complex

Old Terminal 1 Demolition

Pier F Construction

4.4
accommodate primarily domestic
and transborder traffic, they were
initially dedicated to domestic and
international traffic when opened
in April 2004. This capacity, supplemented by another 11 gates
made available from a passenger
hold room facility located in the
Infield area, permitted old
Terminal 1 to be vacated
and demolished.
Once old Terminal 1 was removed,
it was possible to complete more
gate positions on Pier E and the
central processor such that in
October 2005 an additional 10
bridged gates were opened in the
new terminal and reliance on the
Infield Terminal was thereby
significantly reduced. Removal of
old Terminal 1 also freed up space
for construction of Pier F.

Pier F Hammerhead

Pier F Interior

had to be constructed in stages.

Construction was planned such
that as each successive phase was
completed, traffic could be transferred from a portion of the old
terminals to the new. Once
vacated, those portions of the old
terminals could then be demolished
to make way for further terminal
construction and the entire

process repeated progressively

from west to east.
The first component of the new
terminal to be completed was a
large portion of the central processor and the first two piers
(D and E), offering some 14
bridged gates and nine commuter
aircraft positions. While these two
piers were ultimately intended to

Chapter 4 > A I R P O RT D E V E L O P M E N T P R O G R A M

On January 30, 2007, Pier F was

brought on stream resulting in a
total of 49 bridges and nine
commuter positions in new
Terminal 1. At this point, usage
of the new terminal was reoriented such that international
flights were transferred to their
intended location in the hammerhead of the new Pier F. All
transborder flights moved from
Terminal 2 to occupy the stem of
Pier F, as well as those gates in
Pier E and the central processor
that were freed up by the move of
international traffic to the
hammerhead. With the opening
of Pier F, the Airport Development Program as originally
envisaged by the Board of
Directors was complete with

4.5
adequate new terminal capacity
available for the first time to
accommodate expected future
demand over the next five years.
Demolition of Terminal 2 will
now free up space for the continued expansion of the new
terminal complex in future years
as demand warrants. The final
elements of terminal expansion
will include construction of up to
three additional piers bringing the
total gate count to 86, in addition
to parking positions for commuter
aircraft and off-gate groundloaded aircraft. These last stages of
airport development are expected
to be complete before the
planning horizon of 2030.

Ineld Development

4 . 4 I N F IE L D DE V E LO P ME NT
P R OJE C T
The Infield site lies between the
parallel north-south runways and
encompasses 143 ha (352 acres).
The need for the Infield Development Project arose as a result of
growth in cargo demand and displacement of the former air cargo
area by the new terminal, as well
as an expansion of Pier C on
Terminal 3. The Infield
Development Project was designed
to meet the current and future
requirements of the tenants
displaced by the Terminal and
Airside Development Projects.
These tenants were relocated to a
multi-tenant air cargo complex in
the Infield area located between
the runways. Two airline maintenance hangars, a ground equipment
maintenance building and a flight

Ineld Hangar, Business Aviation, Air Trafc Control and Ancillary Facilities

kitchen were also relocated to the

Infield site.
In addition, an 11-gate passenger
hold room facility, the Infield
Terminal, was constructed to
temporarily provide additional
gate capacity during the
demolition of old Terminal 1 and
during construction of its
replacement.
Improvements to public groundside access to the Infield were
completed on the Airports west
side, as was restricted airside
vehicular access to the main
passenger terminal apron, via a
four-lane tunnel under the
north/south Runway 15L-33R.

Chapter 4 > A I R P O RT D E V E L O P M E N T P R O G R A M

4 . 5 S U M M A RY
The primary objective of Toronto
Pearsons Airport Development
Program has been to completely
reinvent the Airport so as to create
a facility that will better serve
passengers, shippers and the
airlines in the coming decades, and
thereby support the continued
growth of the economy in the
Greater Toronto Area. Figure 4-1
presents the work completed
under the ADP.
While the results of this program
have met the immediate needs of
the Airport, new requirements
have emerged. Figure 4-2 presents
a summary of post-ADP projects

4.6

Ineld Cargo, Air Trafc Control and Tunnel Entrance

underway to address the immediate future (i.e. 2008-2013)

including the following:
Completion of the apron in the
vicinity of Terminal 2
Construction of a 7,500 space
parking garage in Area 6B.
Figure 4-2 also presents the
longer-term development needs.

These projects, while significant in

their own right, can be undertaken incrementally as demand
warrants, building on the solid
legacy of the Airport Development
Program, to realize the full
potential of the Toronto Pearson
site for the benefit of the Greater
Toronto Area, southern Ontario
and all of Canada. Beyond 2013,
the projects are as follows:

Chapter 4 > A I R P O RT D E V E L O P M E N T P R O G R A M

Pier G of the new terminal

complex
Expansion of the Terminal 1
Parking Garage to 12,500 spaces
timed to coincide with
the commissioning of Pier G
Sixth runway
Piers H and I.

4.7

Chapter 4 > A I R P O RT D E V E L O P M E N T P R O G R A M

4.8

Chapter 4 > A I R P O RT D E V E L O P M E N T P R O G R A M