Toronto Pearson Airport recognized as one of the best in the world

Pearson International Airport in Toronto just earned the distinction of being the top high-volume airport in all of North America.

Awarded each year by Airports Council International (ACI) World, a trade representative of airports worldwide, the Airport Service Quality (ASQ) awards for 2025 are here, and Pearson Airport has, once again, made the cut.

It may come as a surprise, given Pearson's oft-bemoaned infrastructural issues, long lines and — oh yeah! — planes landing upside down on the runway, but according to ACI, they're actually among the top three airports serving over 40 million passangers a year.

Joining Pearson in the largest-volume category are Dallas Fort Worth International Airport and Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, both in the United States.

If you, like plenty of Canadians caught in the crosshairs of the on-again-off-again trade war between Canada and the United States, are planning to do more travel close to home this year, St John's International Airport in Newfoundland and Victoria International Airport in B.C. earned awards for airports seeing under 2 million passengers a year. I bet their bathrooms are spotless!

Pearson Airport has previously held this title for a consecutive five years between 2017 and 2022, before being stripped of it in 2023, but appears to be back on a roll, having been recognized last year, too.

According to ACI, the award recognizes airports with the "top 20 per cent overall satisfaction score by size and region at departure," which are based on survey responses from travelers passing through said airports.

"We equip airports with a unique suite of customer experience solutions, including comprehensive customer and employee surveys, benchmarking tools, and advisory services to promote airport excellence worldwide," ACI's website reads.

In other words, if someone at Pearson handed you a tablet with a survey on it that you half-heartedly filled out while sitting at your gate this year, you helped Pearson win this honour.

Here's hoping that, for the 2026 season, the lingering effects of the Delta flight disaster don't influence future responses, and we can go for our third consecutive victory.