Pearson Airport Arrivals Guide: Landing at YYZ, Step by Step

Step 1: from the gate to passport control

If you're arriving on an international flight, your first stop after the gate is Canadian passport control and customs. Follow the arrivals signage — the route is one-way and clearly marked, so it's genuinely hard to get lost. How long the process takes varies with the time of day and how many flights land together, which is exactly why trying to guess a pickup time in advance is a losing game.

Arriving on a domestic flight? You skip customs entirely and head more or less straight toward baggage claim, which usually means a much quicker walk to the curb.

Here's the part that matters if someone is meeting you: you don't need to estimate any of this. Every airport pickup we book collects your flight number, and your pickup time follows the actual landing — not the scheduled time, and not your guess at how long the queues will take. However long the formalities run, the car is timed to you.

Step 2: baggage claim

After passport control, signage leads you down to the baggage hall, where screens list which carousel matches your flight. This is usually the least predictable stage of an arrival — some days the bags beat you to the carousel, other days you'll wait a while — and there's nothing to do about it but let it happen.

With a pre-booked chauffeur there's no clock ticking against you while you wait. Because the pickup is tied to your tracked flight rather than a fixed appointment, a slow carousel doesn't cost you anything and nobody needs a status update. Travelling heavy? An SUV, Premium SUV or Sprinter Van swallows a luggage cart's worth of bags without a squeeze — worth choosing at booking time if you're arriving with more than carry-ons.

Step 3: the arrivals hall — and where your chauffeur is

From baggage claim you pass through a final set of doors into the public arrivals hall. This is the room with the crowd: friends and family, tour groups, and a row of chauffeurs holding name signs. Each terminal has its own arrivals hall, and this is where your pickup comes together.

There are two ways to meet your chauffeur. With a standard pickup, your chauffeur tracks the flight and coordinates the pickup once you've landed and collected your bags. With meet & greet — a $65 option on any airport pickup — your chauffeur is one of the people holding a name sign inside the arrivals hall, ready to take your luggage and walk you straight to the car. For a first visit to Pearson, after a long-haul flight, or when you're arranging the pickup for someone else, meet & greet is the difference between scanning an unfamiliar hall and seeing your own name the moment you walk through the doors.

• Standard pickup — chauffeur tracks your flight and coordinates once you have your bags
• Meet & greet (+$65) — chauffeur waits inside the arrivals hall with a name sign
• Both options include flight tracking; the pickup follows the actual landing
• Child seats are free — forward- or rear-facing, installed before you land

Know your terminal — and why it mostly doesn't matter

Pearson has two passenger terminals. Terminal 1 is home to Air Canada and its Star Alliance partner airlines; Terminal 3 hosts most other carriers, including many international and leisure airlines. Your booking confirmation and airline app state which one your flight uses, and if you're curious about the differences, our Pearson Terminal 1 vs Terminal 3 guide covers them in detail.

For a pre-booked pickup, though, the terminal is our problem rather than yours. The flight number you provide at booking identifies the terminal, and your chauffeur goes where the flight actually lands. Even a late terminal change on the airline's side doesn't strand you — the tracking follows the flight, not the plan.

What a Pearson pickup costs

Every quote is a flat, all-in total: base fare, gratuity, HST and any card fee, with the $15.27 airport fee that applies to every airport pickup already inside the number. There's no meter running through traffic and nothing added at the curb. Going the other way costs slightly less — airport drop-offs carry no airport fee at all.

As reference points from the current pricing engine: a sedan from Pearson to downtown Toronto starts from about $134.81 all-in, with an SUV from about $194.01; runs to Mississauga, North York or Markham start from about $132.91 for a sedan. Shorter trips are governed by per-vehicle minimum fares, which is why several nearby destinations share the same starting price. The instant quote at /ride/ shows the exact total for your own address and vehicle before you book — that's the number to trust, not a blog post.

Before you fly: booking the pickup

The whole arrival works best when the pickup is arranged before departure. Book online at least three hours ahead: enter your flight number and destination, pick a vehicle — Sedan through Sprinter Van, compared side by side on our fleet page — and choose meet & greet if you want the name sign inside arrivals. Landing sooner than three hours from now? Call (416) 200-5070 and it's arranged by phone.

Payment is your choice: card, Apple Pay or Google Pay, saved securely at booking and charged only once the ride is confirmed — or cash paid directly to the chauffeur on the day. You'll receive an SMS confirmation when you book and an SMS reminder about four hours before pickup, and the confirmation email includes a self-serve link to view or edit the booking up to 12 hours before pickup. Plans change; the booking can too.