New pier opens at Toronto's Pearson airport

Last Updated: Tuesday, January 30, 2007 | 9:31 AM ET

CBC News

The newest addition to Toronto's Pearson International Airport, an international pier in Terminal 1, opened for business Tuesday morning.

Pier F is handling all flights from the now closed Terminal 2, marking the end of one of the largest and most expensive infrastructure projects in Canadian history.

Terminal 1 of Toronto's Pearson International Airport is home to the new international pier.
(Sarah Sears/CBC)

People have commented that the facility is "large but intimate," said Moshe Safdie, the lead architect for Terminal 1.

"Airports are maybe the most spectacular infrastructure that we build as a community and, therefore, airports become symbols whether one likes it or not," he told CBC News.

Critics question costs

Pier F was part of an eight-year redevelopment project that also included upgrades to Terminal 3 and the creation of Terminal 1, which first opened in April 2004 for domestic flights. 

Pier F increases the airport passenger capacity by 7 million to a total of 38 million passengers per year.
(Sarah Sears/CBC)

The pier cost $800 million, part of a larger $4.5-billion redevelopment project.

Dr. Tay Oum of Air Transport Research Society criticized the airport expansion, saying it has done little to make the airport more efficient. In fact, he said, the airport's efficiency is worsening.

"Toronto's efficiency becomes lower and lower as compared to most of other 100 airports that we are benchmarking," Oum said.

The Air Transit Research Society says Pearson charges airlines the highest landing fees in the world, a charge the GTAA disputes. Passengers have recently been hit with a 33 per cent hike in airport improvement fees.

Passenger capacity increased by 7 million

The Greater Toronto Airports Authority, which operates Pearson, defended the expensive project.

"It is costly to build a new airport on top of an existing one, no question about that," said John Kaldeway, the outgoing chief executive officer of the Greater Toronto Airports Authority. "One doesn't do these things for nothing."

The GTAA borrowed $6.6 billion to finance the airport's redevelopment and pays $410 million every year to service that debt — an amount equivalent to building a new CN Tower every year.

And with the GTAA losing money every year, about $180 million in 2005 alone, the debt isn't shrinking.

The new international pier has 25 gates and increases passenger capacity at Pearson by 7 million passengers, enabling the airport to handle 38 million passengers each year, according to the GTAA.