Did you know that ideally airplanes need to take off and land into the wind? This is why weather, wind direction, crosswinds, speed, and ground conditions play an important role when deciding which runways an airplane will use to take off or land safely.
Since Toronto’s prevailing winds come from the east and west, more than 95% of flights at Pearson are directed to take off or land at the airport’s three east-west runways.
While they may look like them, runways are not roads, but carefully engineered structures. Each runway at Pearson is approximately 3 km long, 4 ft deep and as wide as 16 lanes of traffic!
To ensure a safe and efficient flow of traffic, Air Traffic Controllers use a series of flight paths to safely direct airplanes to and from the airport and guide them on and off our runways.
Want to understand more about how our runways work? Watch the video below!