[nfitz]

I haven't been other than arrivals at T1 for a while, so can't comment.

F&B?

 

[Woodbridge_Heights]

F&B = Food and Beverage. Can't speak to the quality of the offerings, however they have tried to offer better options.

 

[nfitz]

Well, there's hope for T3 then. It's not the lack of current offerings that get's me ... it's the lack of signage removal and lack of extra (or virtually any) seating at the remaining facilities.

 

[Filip]

GTAA - getting things done!

http://www.retail-insider.com/retail-insider/2015/7/pearson-luxury-retail

Anyone who’s ever traveled through Frankfurt, London Heathrow, Amsterdam, Hong Kong, or Dubai knows that an airport doesn’t just have to be utilitarian. Quite the opposite, in fact. Airports can, and should be retail destinations unto themselves. For decades North American airports seemed to have missed that memo. But in recent years, large North American hubs are finally starting to catch up to their European, Asian, and Middle Eastern counterparts. And Toronto Pearson is at the forefront of an airport retail revolution that has made, and will continue to make both Terminals 1 and 3 virtually unrecognizable from 10 years ago.

For those who think airport retail is a frivolous “nice-to-have while you wait impatiently for your flight”, make no mistake, shopping, and in particular luxury shopping, has become such a huge part of the airport experience that it now accounts for as much as 53% of total revenue in the case of Dubai, and 30% in the case of Pearson. The goal is to increase that to 50%.

In the past two years The Nuance Group, which operates the duty free concessions at Pearson, has gone from zero to a hundred in terms of the luxury retail offering. The international Hammerhead (Pier F) now boasts boutiques from the likes of Salvatore Ferragamo, the largest airport Burberry boutique in Canada, Bvlgari, Gucci, Tumi, Omega, and North America's only airport Longchamp boutique. Even the domestic pier at Terminal 1 has undergone a radical change and now includes a Victoria’s Secret boutique and Canada’s only standalone Jo Malone London shop. Nuance has gone on record saying that their Pearson operations are by far their best environment in North America. And the numbers don’t lie – in December 2014, one passenger paid $20,000 cash for an Omega watch at the Omega boutique in Terminal 1.

As more and more of the world’s wealthy travel, Pearson, almost more-so than any other airport in North America, is perfectly positioned to reap the rewards of those who will inevitably shop more as they transit through the airport. As it stands right now, Pearson is the fourth largest port of entry into North America behind New York JFK, LAX, and Miami. Overall international traffic in North America is second only to JFK, and for the past four years Pearson has been the fastest growing airport on the continent. In 2013, the Mastercard Global Destination Cities 2013 Report ranked Toronto first in North America and thirteenth in the world for the city with the fastest air connectivity growth.

Air Canada is concentrating its entire long term growth strategy on Pearson as its global hub, and that strategy is paying off. Already passing the 38 million passenger mark in 2014, Pearson is well on its way to cracking the 40 million passenger milestone for the first time in its history. For some perspective – passenger volumes at Pearson are higher than Canada’s second and third busiest airports combined. Total passenger growth at Pearson is close to 60% higher than Canada’s next three busiest airports (Vancouver, Calgary, and Montreal) combined. International passenger traffic is higher than Canada’s next three busiest airports combined and international traffic growth volumes are over 80% higher than international traffic growth volumes at all three of Canada’s next busiest airports combined. In other words, passenger growth and volumes in Canada are disproportionately in Pearson’s favour. Most of that growth is coming from China, South America, and the Middle East, where wealthy travellers are fuelling a retail revival at airports the world over. Pearson is the first building most people travelling to or through Canada see, and it should represent not only the city of Toronto, but Canada as a whole, in the most positive way.

 

[mistercorporate]

love GTAA that swagger...lets keep growing and dominating as a city, then shift the national capital to Toronto ahahaha...

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

love GTAA that swagger...lets keep growing and dominating as a city, then shift the national capital to Toronto ahahaha...

Our competitors isn't any city in Canada - it is the exisitng Alphas (some of which are going to fall) and the up and comings. There is no rationale for Toronto to be a national capital or anything like that (especially in a federation) - there are far, far bigger sights to aim for.

AoD

 

[allabootmatt]

I've passed through T1 on long-hauls a couple of times recently and came away with a couple of observations, neither of them positive I am sorry to say.

First, the international departures zone is becoming uncomfortably crowded at peak times. As European flights start to leave in the early evening there are big, big queues of people that largely block circulation in the hammerhead. The recent addition of iPad-equipped seating and new, larger food and retail concessions, while welcome in some ways, has really reduced the available space for mustering the very large numbers of people who need to get onto a sold-out 777. When you have 4-5 wide-bodies all boarding in rapid succession it's really quite bad. If the average size of planes serving YYZ is indeed getting larger, I don't see how they can put off adding new international gates much longer. A re-configuration of some of the gate waiting areas to deal with the volumes of people may also be needed. The new T2 at Heathrow offers something of a lesson here: the individual gate areas are huge, which really is the way to go considering the numbers of people we're talking about.

Second and more importantly in my view, the now decade-old T1 is actually looking quite tired. In the baggage hall the carpets are filthy (not sure who thought carpeting such a high-traffic space was a good idea), some of the overhead air vents are caked with black gunk, and tons of lights are burned out. Same goes for the customs hall. The high-speed moving walkway heading to the hammerhead had multiple strips of duct tape (!!) covering seals at each end when I last visited. There seems also to be a pretty lax attitude to garbage collection, with tons of old baggage tags and other litter easy to find throughout the building. The overall impression is of a place that's not quite keeping up, and which could actually get quite run down in the near future if something doesn't change. I understand there is a minor upgrade program underway in T1; I hope it takes into account these small issues which nonetheless add up to an increasingly negative impression for travelers.

On the whole T1 is a pretty good facility but I think the GTAA needs to be careful about resting on its laurels. Management are saying all the right things and I hope we'll see movement soon on the above.

An aside: I am a big fan of UP Express and don't think the $19 one-way fare is unreasonable. However the signage and subway interface at Union need significant work. It's all hostage to the Union renovations to some extent, but getting from the subway to the UP platform with bags really is a bit of an ordeal right now, and a confusing one at that -- even for a high-information regular traveler like me. I can imagine tourists being completely bewildered.

 

[mdrejhon]

...lets keep growing and dominating as a city, then shift the national capital to Toronto ahahaha...

As much as I like Toronto/Hamilton -- hands off my hometown Ottawa.

Ottawa was kind of chosen as a compromise between Toronto and Montreal, right on the border between Upper Canada and Lower Canada. And with the massive towering government building complexes on both sides of the border (I remember my summer jobs of yesteryear, working government summer jobs on both sides of the Ontario-Quebec border, including good old Place du Portage Phase IV)...I can assure you, it's politically impossible move Ottawa into Toronto, without extending the Quebec border all the way to at least Cobourg (or maybe Pickering). Not gonna happen! Even if Quebec becomes a different country (...there is so much intertwined from things like electrical grids to resources to collaboration to transportation to policy, we literally have to be on their border out of sheer necessity...) It would be cheaper to build an underground subway from Toronto to Vancouver, than to move Capital City away from Ottawa. That's actually how difficult it is to move the Capital City away from Ottawa.

 

[MetroMan]

I've passed through T1 on long-hauls a couple of times recently and came away with a couple of observations, neither of them positive I am sorry to say.

First, the international departures zone is becoming uncomfortably crowded at peak times. As European flights start to leave in the early evening there are big, big queues of people that largely block circulation in the hammerhead. The recent addition of iPad-equipped seating and new, larger food and retail concessions, while welcome in some ways, has really reduced the available space for mustering the very large numbers of people who need to get onto a sold-out 777. When you have 4-5 wide-bodies all boarding in rapid succession it's really quite bad. If the average size of planes serving YYZ is indeed getting larger, I don't see how they can put off adding new international gates much longer. A re-configuration of some of the gate waiting areas to deal with the volumes of people may also be needed. The new T2 at Heathrow offers something of a lesson here: the individual gate areas are huge, which really is the way to go considering the numbers of people we're talking about.

Second and more importantly in my view, the now decade-old T1 is actually looking quite tired. In the baggage hall the carpets are filthy (not sure who thought carpeting such a high-traffic space was a good idea), some of the overhead air vents are caked with black gunk, and tons of lights are burned out. Same goes for the customs hall. The high-speed moving walkway heading to the hammerhead had multiple strips of duct tape (!!) covering seals at each end when I last visited. There seems also to be a pretty lax attitude to garbage collection, with tons of old baggage tags and other litter easy to find throughout the building. The overall impression is of a place that's not quite keeping up, and which could actually get quite run down in the near future if something doesn't change. I understand there is a minor upgrade program underway in T1; I hope it takes into account these small issues which nonetheless add up to an increasingly negative impression for travelers.

On the whole T1 is a pretty good facility but I think the GTAA needs to be careful about resting on its laurels. Management are saying all the right things and I hope we'll see movement soon on the above.

An aside: I am a big fan of UP Express and don't think the $19 one-way fare is unreasonable. However the signage and subway interface at Union need significant work. It's all hostage to the Union renovations to some extent, but getting from the subway to the UP platform with bags really is a bit of an ordeal right now, and a confusing one at that -- even for a high-information regular traveler like me. I can imagine tourists being completely bewildered.

I agree with this. As a new terminal that I thought was meant to handle the increased traffic of Pearson, I find the new terminal 1 to be unbearably crowded most of the time. What are the plans for continuing the expansion?

Regarding UP Express, it took me some time to find the station after coming out of baggage claim into Arrivals. Signage isn't easily followed. I ended up first going the wrong way and then ending up in the parking garage. Once there, the service is A+ with a reliable, comfortable and quick connection to downtown. I'm so glad that we finally have it.

Q: What is the timeline for the next phase of expansion of Pearson International?

EDIT: To follow up on my question, I did some digging and found this in the GTAA's Master Plan:

6.4.3 Terminal 1 Pier G

The next phase of terminal capacity expansion will be the further development of Terminal 1. This is currently projected to be required by 2014 and will involve construc- tion of an additional pier (Pier G) and may include some limited expansion at the east end of the main processor building.

That explains the crowding. Development of an additional pier was to be required by last year. What's going on exactly? Why has construction been halted and why does it seem like maintenance is falling behind as per allabootmattt's observations?

 

[Woodbridge_Heights]

I've passed through T1 on long-hauls a couple of times recently and came away with a couple of observations, neither of them positive I am sorry to say.

First, the international departures zone is becoming uncomfortably crowded at peak times. As European flights start to leave in the early evening there are big, big queues of people that largely block circulation in the hammerhead. The recent addition of iPad-equipped seating and new, larger food and retail concessions, while welcome in some ways, has really reduced the available space for mustering the very large numbers of people who need to get onto a sold-out 777. When you have 4-5 wide-bodies all boarding in rapid succession it's really quite bad. If the average size of planes serving YYZ is indeed getting larger, I don't see how they can put off adding new international gates much longer. A re-configuration of some of the gate waiting areas to deal with the volumes of people may also be needed. The new T2 at Heathrow offers something of a lesson here: the individual gate areas are huge, which really is the way to go considering the numbers of people we're talking about.

Second and more importantly in my view, the now decade-old T1 is actually looking quite tired. In the baggage hall the carpets are filthy (not sure who thought carpeting such a high-traffic space was a good idea), some of the overhead air vents are caked with black gunk, and tons of lights are burned out. Same goes for the customs hall. The high-speed moving walkway heading to the hammerhead had multiple strips of duct tape (!!) covering seals at each end when I last visited. There seems also to be a pretty lax attitude to garbage collection, with tons of old baggage tags and other litter easy to find throughout the building. The overall impression is of a place that's not quite keeping up, and which could actually get quite run down in the near future if something doesn't change. I understand there is a minor upgrade program underway in T1; I hope it takes into account these small issues which nonetheless add up to an increasingly negative impression for travelers.

On the whole T1 is a pretty good facility but I think the GTAA needs to be careful about resting on its laurels. Management are saying all the right things and I hope we'll see movement soon on the above.

An aside: I am a big fan of UP Express and don't think the $19 one-way fare is unreasonable. However the signage and subway interface at Union need significant work. It's all hostage to the Union renovations to some extent, but getting from the subway to the UP platform with bags really is a bit of an ordeal right now, and a confusing one at that -- even for a high-information regular traveler like me. I can imagine tourists being completely bewildered.

I'm with you on the International departure hall. They've taken what was an open and airy space and crammed it with retail to claustrophobic levels.

I agree with this. As a new terminal that I thought was meant to handle the increased traffic of Pearson, I find the new terminal 1 to be unbearably crowded most of the time. What are the plans for continuing the expansion?

Regarding UP Express, it took me some time to find the station after coming out of baggage claim into Arrivals. Signage isn't easily followed. I ended up first going the wrong way and then ending up in the parking garage. Once there, the service is A+ with a reliable, comfortable and quick connection to downtown. I'm so glad that we finally have it.

Q: What is the timeline for the next phase of expansion of Pearson International?

EDIT: To follow up on my question, I did some digging and found this in the GTAA's Master Plan:



That explains the crowding. Development of an additional pier was to be required by last year. What's going on exactly? Why has construction been halted and why does it seem like maintenance is falling behind as per allabootmattt's observations?

That's the 2008 masterplan, word is they are working on a new masterplan (or at least have adjusted some planning horizons). The new piers were not built as GTAA deemed they are not needed yet since most passenger growth has come from an increase in aircraft size not in number of aircrafts. And contrary to your's and allabootmattt's experience on the ground terminal expansion is mainly meant to increase aircraft capacity (through additional gates) not necessarily to increase passenger capacity.

That said they have begun renovations at T1, details here: http://torontopearson.com/rethink/t1/##

 

[MetroMan]

So the main hall needs to be expanded and waiting lounges need to be made larger to accommodate more passengers per plane? Won't larger planes decrease the amount of planes that can fit in the existing piers thus resulting in the need for a new pier nonetheless?

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

That said they have begun renovations at T1, details here: http://torontopearson.com/rethink/t1/##

The website on T1 renewal is laughable - there is no information of substance on what the proposed changes are.

AoD

 

[Woodbridge_Heights]

So the main hall needs to be expanded and waiting lounges need to be made larger to accommodate more passengers per plane? Won't larger planes decrease the amount of planes that can fit in the existing piers thus resulting in the need for a new pier nonetheless?

Not necessarily. The difference (in terms of terminal/gate requirements) is not very different between a 737 or a 777 other than the number of passengers.

 

[cplchanb]

Has there been any presentation slides or equiv. of what the proposed upgrades would look like?

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

Has there been any presentation slides or equiv. of what the proposed upgrades would look like?

I think one might have better luck with their annual report or newsletters (I haven't had a chance to go through either).

AoD