New ranking shows Toronto Pearson Airport’s on-time reliability is deplorable

Toronto Pearson International Airport. (Shutterstock)

Canada’s largest airport has received terrible marks in a new ranking. In fact, it nearly bottomed out on a list of 141 global airports assessed.

AirHelp has ranked Toronto Pearson International Airport (YYZ) at 119th due to long flight delays and cancellations and “unfavourable passenger sentiment.”

With the ranking, it is also the worst airport in Canada – ranking poorly for not only on-time performance but also last for quality of service and claims processing.

AirHelp says its latest annual scores are based on data collected between December 2017 and March 2018. This includes data on delayed and cancelled flights, on-time arrival statistics, and public reviews and social media sentiment analysis.

Some weather-related factors may have been a factor, which is of course beyond the control of YYZ. There were a significant number of snow-related delays and cancellations in December leading into the busy Christmas season, and this continued well into January.

But there is no question that YYZ is experiencing major growing pains.

Last year, according to the Airports Authority, YYZ recorded a staggering 47.1 million passengers – up from 44.3 million in 2016 and 33.4 million in 2011. At the same time, significant airport expansion and improvements projects on the scale of the newest terminal built a decade ago are likely still many years away.

YYZ’s passenger numbers are forecast to grow to up to 60 million by 2030.

Meanwhile, Canada’s best airports were Ottawa MacDonald-Cartier International Airport, Edmonton International Airport, and Vancouver International Airport.

Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport earned a 101st placement in the global ranking and a sixth-best national ranking, just behind Montreal-Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport and ahead of Calgary International Airport.

The best global airports were Hamad International Airport (Doha), Athens International Airport, Haneda Airport (Tokyo), Cologne Bonn Airport, and Singapore Changi Airport.

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