Airports Council International (ACI) has released the 2006 numbers on passenger and cargo statistics for world airports. Passenger activity at Toronto Pearson in 2006 was up 3.5% from 2005, processing 31 million passengers, placing it at number 29 in the world ranking. Lloyd McCoomb, President and Chief Executive Officer of the GTAA said “We are very pleased and encouraged to see the steady growth in passenger traffic at Toronto Pearson as we anticipated. It proves that we made the right decision to redevelop this airport to enable us to meet current and future air transport demands. Toronto Pearson is now a premier facility that is equipped to compete with any airport in the world.”

And for the first time, Toronto Pearson is ranked among the world’s top 50 airports in cargo activity. Based on adjusted numbers, ACI ranks Toronto Pearson as number 36 in the world for air cargo volumes in 2006. “We are very proud”, Mr. McCoomb says, “of this substantial growth in cargo operations and we continue to work with cargo operators and freight forwarders to build cargo operations at Toronto Pearson.”

In January 2007, the GTAA completed a 10-year Airport Development Program at Toronto Pearson. At the forefront of this program was the building of the new Terminal 1 and the redevelopment of Terminal 3 which brings passenger capacity at Toronto Pearson to 38 million passengers per year.