Pearson Airport passenger volume up nearly 50 per cent: report

Watch: Ironic pan from Pearson CEO to show delays Watch the moment the camera pans to show multiple flight delays at Pearson as the airport's CEO praised its service improvements. 

In the first six months of 2023, the volume of passengers at Canada’s largest and busiest airport has increased by nearly half compared to the same period in 2022.

According to the Greater Toronto Airport Authority (GTAA), 21.2 million travellers made their way through Toronto Pearson International Airport in the first half of this year, compared to 14.6 million in the same six-month period last year.

The airport operator noted that passenger activity in the first half of 2023 reflects 86.5 per cent of the passenger volumes seen before the pandemic.

This increase in passengers has netted the airport a whopping 33.5 per cent increase in total revenues, from $666.4 million in the first half of 2022 to $889.4 million so far this year.

In a news release, the GTAA said this increase in passengers can be attributed to high travel demand as well as the removal of pandemic-related travel restrictions that were still in place during the first half of 2022.

"The efforts of our team and valued partners are yielding positive results for our collective customers,” said Deborah Flint, GTAA’s president and CEO, in a release.

The report follows a statement earlier this summer from Flint, who told CP24 in July that operations at Toronto Pearson have “significantly improved” compared to the myriad delays and cancellations of last summer.

“We're very proud of our progress. We are energized by the future,” she said at the time.