long queues at immigration, customs, security and baggage claim, not much shopping or dining
Recommend to potential buyers:
no
Full review
If you are planning a trip to Toronto, you will encounter Toronto Pearson International Airport, also known as Lester B. Pearson International Airport or YYZ. The airport now consists of three terminals. Established in 1939, this airport is located approximately 20 miles from downtown Toronto and is ranked at number 28 amongst the world's busiest airports, handling nearly 30 million passengers in 2005. But is the airport really equipped to please all these travellers?
***Arrival and immigration ***
Travelling with British Airways means that you will be arriving at and departing from Terminal 3, which was built in 1989 to offset traffic from Terminals 1 and 2. As you disembark from your airplane, you will be asked to have your passports ready for inspection, as immigration officers will meet you at the end of the gangway before entering the terminal.
We found the process to be very slow, as immigration officials are quite thorough in their approach, often pulling passengers aside for further questioning. While I was let through quite swiftly, my fiancé was questioned in detail about how long he was intending to stay, how many bags he was bringing into the country, where he was staying and what his profession was. These questions can be somewhat overwhelming when you are just stepping off the plane - and are especially intrusive if you are in dire need to visit the washroom after a lengthy flight.
Although thorough security is to be welcomed, the initial questioning when stepping of the plane seems a little excessive, especially since passengers then proceed to face immigration officials once again before arriving at the baggage claim. We made the mistake of taking some time out to visit the washroom before going through immigration, which ultimately meant that we were facing long queues. Once again, we found immigration officials to be very thorough, often questioning visitors for several minutes before stamping their passports and allowing them into the country.
Unlike in the United States, where unmarried couples are strictly asked to enter the country individually, the immigration official who checked my passport asked my fiancé to step forward and join me once she learned that we were traveling together. We were let through with relatively few questions being asked - especially when she learned that I had lived in Toronto before.
***Baggage claim***
We were immediately overwhelmed with the baggage claim area, which is way too small for an airport handling so many passengers. There were too many people running around like headless chickens - and once we had located the conveyor belt with for our flight, we had little chance to even reach the belt to pull of our luggage. Retrieval of the luggage was painfully slow for everyone involved - the belt stopping several times in the process.
***Customs***
Once you have claimed your baggage, you proceed to customs. As you approach, a first customs official will ask you to hold up your white landing card, which you will have completed on the plane. Then you will have to queue up to hand in the card to another customs official, a process that is yet again painfully slow.
***Leaving the airport***
It took a good 1 ½ hours before we reached the outside of the terminal. Upon arrival, you will have to decide on your mode of transportation. As the airport is not terribly big, it is easy to find ground transportation. To reach the downtown airport bus, just exit the terminal and look for a huge pink sign reading "Downtown Express". A return/roundtrip ticket is under CAD$29 per person (approximately £14.50). If you are too tired, you can take a taxi from the taxi stands - but you should expect to pay around CAD$60 (approximately £30) for the trip downtown. There is also the option to travel downtown for a mere CAD$2.75 (approximately £1.50), by finding the shuttle bus to the either Kipling or St Lawrence subway station and then hopping on the subway.
I strongly recommend using the downtown bus service - as it stops at most major downtown hotels and is a lot less stressful than the subway. The subway is really only a comfortable option if you arrived from elsewhere in Canada or the United States, as it takes a long time to reach downtown and involves a lot of carting of the luggage.
***Returning to the airport and checking in***
When we returned to Terminal 3, we were really overwhelmed by the amount of passengers in the terminal. Although there are screens pointing you into the direction of your airline, it does take some time to orient yourself and find your check-in counter. We found that the cheap airlines, such as Zoom and Thomas Cook, were in plain view, whereas the more reputable airlines, such as British Airways and KLM, where located around the corner.
***Shopping and dining before the security check***
As we had almost three hours to kill before our flight, I suggested we should have a look around the shops located in the check-in hall. Much to our disappointed, most of these shops actually closed right in front of our nose - as it was past 9 p.m. The only stores that remained open were a bookstore and one of the stores containing tourist items.
For hungry passengers, there is an array of fast food on display: Upper Crust, Pizza Pizza and Swiss Chalet. However, I found the smell of the pizza so intense that it made me nauseous.
***Security checks***
As there was not much to do in the ticket hall, we decided to go through security in the hope that entertainment on the other end would be a little better. There were two lines to the security check - and before joining the line, your tickets were checked. The lines moved forward very slowly - which is largely due to the fact that they actually merged into one line at the end, which obviously upset a number of passengers thinking they should go through the door first.
The queuing system for the security check is further complicated by the fact that there is no separate line for either disabled people or flight crew. Ultimately this means that from time to time these individuals will squeeze past you to the security check. Whilst I understand the need for them to be prioritised, I felt that it was a real failing of the airport not to provide a separate queue.
Security checks are thorough - as they should be. Your tickets are checked again - and you will be asked to put pretty much everything through the scanner. There is a distinct lack of security personnel and scanners, however, making the process very slow.
***Duty free and other facilities after the security check***
The shopping behind the security check is very limited. There is a duty free shop providing the usual items, such as alcohol, cigarettes, chocolates and beauty products as well as more Canadian-specific items, such as maple candy, maple leaf-shaped biscuits and chocolates. There is also another souvenir shop, which has a nice selection of T-shirts, cups, key chains and cuddly toys - but of course at prices much higher than in the city of Toronto. We indeed found it impossible to find anything to spend our last CAD$45 on.
There is a book store selling magazines, candy and drinks for refreshment as well as a Starbucks and a little bar, which has a small television. Other than that, all that is left to do is to wait for your flight. You cannot roam around the terminal building, in fact, we saw some interesting stores located behind a glass door, which sadly seem to be intended for passengers flying to the United States only.
***Upsides***
One of the upsides of YYZ airport is that it is very clean. There is no rubbish lying about, all areas look spotless. This is especially true of the washrooms, which appear to be cleaned very regularly and are certainly amongst the cleanest I have seen at airports.
***Verdict***
On the whole, Toronto airport has very little to offer for passengers on return flights. I would therefore recommend checking in online (if possible with your airline) and arriving only 1 ½ hours before your flight departs. A general nuisance at the airport is its disorganisation and the constant need to stand in very slow-moving queues. You cannot avoid the airport if arriving from the United Kingdom, so be prepared and make the most of your - hopefully short - visit to YYZ.
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