Canadians have come to expect snow and freezing rain during the winter months. Despite the challenging winter weather, staff at Toronto Pearson have the enormous task of keeping the airport running for more than 31 million passengers that travel through Canada’s busiest airport each year.

The GTAA’s carefully designed approach to winter operations aims to minimize operational impact during winter events. Experienced staff developed the GTAA’s winter plan of operations and work tirelessly to minimize inconvenience to the travelling public and maintain safe operations during winter weather.

A key element in the GTAA winter operational plan is to develop a dependable and effective deicing facility. As the largest central deicing facility in the world, the CDF can accommodate six wide-body aircraft or 12 narrow-body aircraft at one time. During the 2007-2008 winter season, the CDF used 9,972,805 litres of deicing fluid. So far, during the 2008-2009 winter season, the facility has sprayed 3,558,952 litres of deicing fluid.

The process of deicing an aircraft is an essential aspect of safe winter travel. Aircraft are sprayed with a mixture of water and ethylene glycol to remove contamination from the aircraft surface caused by ice or snow. Failure to remove this contamination can prevent the aircraft from generating lift and achieving a smooth flow of air.

Keeping the airport runways and taxiways clear of snow is an integral part of safe and effective winter operations. Using their hard work and expertise, airside operations staff at Toronto Pearson have refined runway snow removal procedures to a point where runway occupancy time is 15 minutes or less from when the cleaning operation begins. Airside operations staff can clear the airport’s five runways and the associated taxiway system in just over an hour. A team of up to 30 vehicles move onto the airfield in a precise, predetermined circuit and work together to plow, sweep, clear and treat all airfield surfaces that are affected by snow or ice.

The GTAA is proud to have well trained, expert crews working hard every day to keep Toronto Pearson running smoothly and safely in all types of weather. With more than 31 million passengers travelling through this airport each year, it is crucial that airport operations run in an efficient manner. Although the GTAA does not control the weather, the GTAA does its best to minimize any impact that winter weather has on the overall operational effectiveness of Toronto Pearson and on the travelling public.